Feathers, Fights and Friendships
by Seanchaidh
Summary: An AU, OC fic that takes the idea of the Tribe & runs with what might have happened had the show been set in Princes sq., Glasgow, Scotland, instead. Don't read this if you are after canon characters! All reviews welcomed! No Tribe knowledge needed.
1. Prologue

Feathers, Fights and Friendships

Prologue

When the virus hit the city, the old and the weak died quickly. Younger adults took longer to die, but they too eventually passed out of the old world and their children passed on to a new world: a world where, if you were alone, you were as good as dead.

In a street in city centre, two girls stood at the locked entrance of the mall where they had once worked. A great metal peacock on the roof cast his shadow across the façade of the opposite building. There were three front doors to this mall; all were blocked off by locked and alarmed metal grills. There were also two shops, between these doors, and a third on the far side of the third door, which would give access to the mall, if they had not also been locked up and their grills locked in place. The only other entrances to the mall were round the back through one door and another store. They would also be locked up in the same fashion. The two girls shifted the weight of their packs and looked around uneasily.

"She'll be here," said the younger girl.

"I know, I'm just wondering when!" the older girl answered, "We agreed to be here at sunrise, before the other kids in the city started moving around. It's an hour after that already!"

"You know what Cat's like, Say. She'll have got three paces out the door then gone back several times because she thinks she's forgotten something!"

"It just better not be her key: we'll need both of ours to reset the master alarm."

"NooooooOOOOOOOO BRAAAAAAAAAAaaaakkkessssss!" cried a figure on an old bicycle, travelling downhill with rather a lot of baggage and at an alarming speed.

"That'll be her," Say said, dryly, rolling her eyes, then flinching as she watched the bike skid to a halt some way further down the hill, "I said travel light!"

"You said "only take what you can carry", if my memory is right," the younger girl commented, "That doesn't mean "light" to Cat!"

"Sorry I'm late," Cat replied, wheeling her bike back up the hill, "I thought I'd forgot something."

"Do you have your key?" Say asked, avoiding her companion's amused grin.

"Yeah," Cat fished around in a multitude of pockets before extracting from one a large bunch of keys and key rings, "Got it here."

"Right, let's get inside then," Say replied and turned to open the grill of one door with her key, "Ready for the alarm?"

"Ready," Cat replied, slipping in the now unlocked door without her baggage and facing the alarm box on one side as Say faced the one on the opposite wall.

"Three. Two. One. NOW!"

Silence

"Class!" Cat said appreciatively.

"You've still got to get your stuff in!" Say told her, "Anni and I are not helping you carry it in!"

"Fine," Cat shrugged, apathetically, "I got it here, didn't I."

Say and Anni took their bags inside and turned to watch Cat manoeuvring her bike and bags in through the door. Turning back to the door, she shut the grill and locked it, then did the same with the door.

"What did you bring?" Say asked, "Your whole apartment?"

"You said to bring what I could carry," Cat replied, walking up to join them, "So I did."

Say sighed and looked at her friend. A large rucksack was strapped to Cat's back, with a bed roll tied to the top of it and another, smaller rucksack strapped on over it. Over one shoulder, Cat carried a large holdall with a pair of knee-high boots strapped on top of it and a pair of ankle boots tied to one side of it; over the other shoulder, she carried a satchel and a handbag with a long coat folded over the satchel. Cat was dressed in her Khaki trousers, t-shirt and shirt, with a three-quarter-length black leather jacket over the top of them.

Say watched as Cat and Anni headed off up the still escalator to their stores. Anni ran the small, yet permanent, chocolate stall on the first level, while Cat worked in the Illuminati shop that looked out to Anni's stall. In comparison to Cat, Anni only carried two bags: one large, camping rucksack, with a bedroll attached, and one satchel slung over her shoulders and neck. She wore grey track trousers with sneakers and a white vest top and a grey hooded fleece top: easy clothes to move around in and work in, Say thought, and this would take a lot of work.

Say's place of work wasn't a store, but a restaurant on the lower ground level. She was a trainee there. She lifted up her single rucksack and headed down the escalator to her restaurant. Unlocking the grill on the restaurant entrance, Say considered what work there was to be done. The generators would have to be started up again: there had been solar panels installed in the roof to be used with the generators only a few months before the virus had started to spread. The mall owners had intended to run the entire place off of the solar panels when sufficient money presented to allow them to finish the job. They had enough solar panels, as well as enough generators, but they were yet to be linked up.

Once they got the electricity back on, there should be enough to run some, limited facilities, Say thought, at least until they figured out how to connect up the remaining panels. The biggest electricity drains were the lifts and escalators and they were easily done without. Once they had got themselves settled into some stores to use as rooms, and had got their food supplies sorted out, they could look at that problem in more detail.

The mall was small in comparison to its nearby rivals at either end of the street on which most of the larger shops in the city centre stood, but it was a big place for only three girls. Anni had left messages for her flatmates, who had both gone to nurse Bobbi's mother when she became ill. Say had left messages for two of her friends to join them, but had had no reply. Cat had done the same, but had also had no reply. Maybe they would come, maybe they wouldn't.

Say looked around the empty kitchen. The cold store was in one corner: it would have been freshly stocked at the start of the month, about two weeks ago, and she doubted if much had been used since then. Fresh food was kept in the walk in refrigerator next to the cold store. Say had always thought that the walk in refrigerator was cold enough, then she had been sent for something out of the cold store! That was the home of all the frozen food: meats, vegetables, pre-prepared desserts, ice creams and other odds and ends. There should be enough food in those two rooms to last them a while anyway, to say nothing of what could be found in the other stores and restaurants.

Meanwhile, Anni and Cat were gossiping upstairs as they worked. Anni had unlocked the chocolate store and left her two bags there while Cat had unlocked Illuminati and dropped her bags outside the door, before going inside.

"Aren't you taking your bags in, Cat?" Anni asked.

"Not until I've got some stuff out of here," her friend called from the other end of the small store, "I'll clear out the card stands first, then that'll give us room to put the three bed rolls down if we don't get the other stores open today."

"What _did_ you bring with you? This can't be _all_ clothes!"

"Nah, it's mostly personal stuff, like photos, books that I thought might be useful and just general stuff that I thought might come in handy. My clothes are in the holdall, with some of the larger books."

"Did you bring your tool-kit?"

"Well, we're not gonna get far without it! Once I've got these stands out of the way, we can leave our stuff in here and I'll get it and we can go round opening the locks."

The first of the card stands came out of the tunnel-like entrance to the store. About five minutes later, the other stand followed it and the two girls took their bags inside. Cat fished about in her smaller rucksack for a minute, then produced a boxed set of screwdrivers with a compartment underneath containing a number of other small tools. This, slightly eclectic, collection included numerous rubber bands, an assortment of screws, picture hooks and nails and, most importantly, a set of skeleton keys: Cat's pride and joy! The two friends headed off around the other stores on that level, stopping for a few minutes at each one to unlock and raise the grills denying them entry.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It took Cat and Anni most of the morning to unlock all the stores in the mall. When they got back to Illuminati, the store at which Cat used to work, they found Say working on a checklist of things to do.

"Well, all the shops are open for business," Cat said, cheerfully, "Not that there's gonna be much o'course."

"Don't relax yet," Say answered, looking up from her checklist, "We still need to get the power back on if we want the restaurant cold stores and fridges to work. They'll take time to warm up, but without the electricity, they will do so eventually whether we open them or not. You're the one who talked to old Henry all the time: you're the one who knows the most about them. Off you go. Once we have some power to cook with, I'll make you lunch."

Cat sighed and rolled her eyes. Taking her small and eclectic toolkit from Anni, she trudged woefully down the stairs.

"Pehaps she'll need some help …" Anni began, turning to follow Cat.

"She'll be fine," Say called, causing Anni to stop in her tracks and sigh, disappointedly, "I need you to give me a hand sorting out the stores. Which one do you want to settle in? And don't say the Pen Shop: that's mine!"

***********************

Cat pushed open the door of the generator room. Old Henry had been a caretaker of the mall and the man who kept the "Jennies" running smoothly. He had overseen the installation of the first solar panels, but had fallen ill with the virus not long after and died before the panels and generators were linked up. He had caught Cat exploring during her first lunch-break at the mall and had given her the "grand tour" of his little kingdom in the basement. At the time it had been fun. He was a fun guy, for all his years, and he'd reminded Cat of her grandfather. She had been only too happy to sneak back down whenever she could and talk to him.

Now, however, without him there, the basement was dark and strange and eerily quiet. Cat didn't mind the dark: it was always dark in the basement; that was half the fun. What irked her was the quiet. With her boots on, her footsteps made little noise to break the wall of silence built by the incapacitated generators. She felt like that girl out of Jurassic Park; the one who'd almost got eaten by a dinosaur just after turning the power back on! But there were no dinosaurs here.

Cat reached the main fuse box without much difficulty: she knew her way around the generators easily enough. When she flicked the switch, the small, emergency generator at the side of the box gurgled into life. It was oil powered and provided electricity for the basement lights alone. As the energy saving lights grew gradually brighter, Cat examined the fuse box. Everything seemed in order: it was just a case of starting up the main generators manually. As she stood up, she heard a noise and froze. She could have sworn that she just heard a door shut, but not the one leading out to the mall. She quickly and quietly climbed up onto Henry's old chair, then his desk, then, after glancing around and seeing nothing but generators, she swung herself up into the steel support beams. From a crouched position in the shadowy corner of the basement, above the level of the lights, Cat looked around and listened. There were footsteps, but the echoes and generators made it difficult to guess where they were coming from. The only things that Cat could be sure about was that they were not from the direction of the mall entrance, as she could see the entrance clearly from her perch, and that they were getting closer.

A few moments later, a young girl appeared in the brightening gloom. The light reflected off her blonde hair as she looked around her. She could see the fuse box, but couldn't see who had switched it on. Cat edged along the beam to where she could drop down clearly. She waited until the girl's back was turned before she jumped. The girl spun round quickly at the sound of Cat landing. She was slightly taller and thinner than Cat, wearing blue jeans with a yellow vest top and long-sleeved blue net top over it that matched the blue tips of her shoulder-length hair.

"What are you doing here?" the girl asked, quickly, "Who are you? What do you want?"

"Eh?" Cat replied, puzzled, "It's my friends and I who have the keys to this place! I should be asking _you_ that!"

***********************

Anni and Say finally finished clearing out the Pen Shop at the opposite end of the first level from Illuminati. Say had decided that they would start by clearing out the stores they would use as rooms, then move stuff into them from the other stores as they required. Anything that came out of one store would fit in another somewhere. Anni had decided it was time for a break.

"Shouldn't Cat be done by now?" Say wondered as she laid out her bedding roll.

"I'll go check on her, shall I?" Anni offered, hopefully.

"Yeah, go on," Say replied, "and remind her there is plenty more work to be done before lunch!"

"Yes, _Mommy_!" Anni muttered, under her breath, as she headed for the stairs.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Anni found her way down to the basement with little difficulty: she had been there once with Cat to see Old Henry. Although the place had given her the creeps then, right now anything was better than taking orders from Say: she was in organisational mode and, once she started a job, however large, she wouldn't let up until it was finished and finished right. Anni wondered if her friend's single-mindedness was, at least in part, due to the effect of the virus: Say was the oldest of them, not only of the three of them in the mall, but of all their friends, left alive. She worried that perhaps Say's determination to get everything in the mall set up and working in record time was down to a fear of living on borrowed time. It was a fear they all had, but as the virus targeted the adults, it must be that little bit greater for those closer to that line: the line between being a grown up and just getting there. There didn't even seem to be any fixed age at which the virus struck: it had taken many young children, but purely because they were young and weak, and most people over the age of twenty-one. Say had had her twenty-first birthday six months ago: they had all been at the party.

A pang of guilt creapt into Anni's heart and mind: maybe she shouldn't have let her lazy side get the better of her; maybe she should have stayed and made the most of what time there was left. But she reminded herself that her excuse was a valid one, Cat [i]had[/i] been gone a long time, and she couldn't spend her life worrying over things that might never happen. As she reached the open basement door, Anni was relieved to find there was a light coming from somewhere, but noted that the usual hum of the generators was absent.

"C-Cat?" she called, hesitantly.

"Down here," came the faint reply, "by the desk."

Anni made her way, slowly and cautiously, through the silent, towering generators until she saw Cat standing next to Old Henry's desk. Her arms were at her sides, though they were held slightly away from her body: something that Anni recognised as Cat's familiar "do-not-mess-with-me-I'm-faster-than-you-are" pose. Anni followed her friend's fixed gaze and, as she advanced, saw another girl become visible round the corner of one of the generators. This girl was tall, with blonde and blue hair and stood with her arms folded across her chest and a grimace on her face that said "do-not-mess-with-me-I'm-bigger-than-you-are". Anni stopped and rolled her eyes.

"What's going on?" she asked, wearily.

"We have an intruder," Cat answered, plainly.

"Who says you own this mall?" the other girl replied, vehemently, "I don't see your names above the door!"

"We have keys!" Cat replied.

"We also have plenty room," Anni cut in, "Tell us who you are and, if it's okay with Say, you can stay here too."

"Hey!" Cat cried, "Don't I get a say in this? And what about all the others?"

"They others aren't here yet and we don't know if they ever will be. We've plenty room in here and if Say agrees, you're out-voted!"

"Sounds fair," the girl agreed, "My name's Dee. I was a student at university before all this happened."

"Huh, it would sound fair to you!" Cat growled.

"Oh, go fix the Jennies!" Anni scolded, "Say wants to cook lunch soon!"

"Well, tough!" Cat replied, "It'll take me ages to get all of _them_ up and running: it's gotta be done manually. She'll just have to use my Trangia: it's in my bag."

"Which one? And _what_ is a trangia?"

"It's a camping stove. It's in the top of the big rucksack."

"I'll give you a hand with the generators if you like," Dee offered.

"I'd rather work alone," Cat answered sullenly.

Anni rolled her eyes and sighed: it was just like Cat to go into one of her moods. She'd be fine once she'd worked it off, though. Taking Dee's arm, Anni led the taller girl back through the generators and up the stairs to the mall.

***********************

Across the Highland Line, a funeral pyre burned by the banks of Loch Lomond. Two girls stood silently, side by side. As the fire burned out, one of the girls fell to her knees, weeping uncontrolably.

"Ssh, Bobbi, ssh," the other girl sank down to put her arms round her friend and hug her, "She's at peace now. Nothing can hurt her now."

"She was all the family I had, Amy!" Bobbi cried through her tears, "Now she's gone! I'm alone again. Just like I was before!"

"You're not alone!" Amy reproached her, "You have me. And Anni will be back at the flat, waiting for us. And all of our other friends, back in the city. You're not alone. Believe me."


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Anni led Dee up the stairs to the Illuminati store and rummaged around in Cat's bags while Dee wandered round the store, smelling the candles and playing with the robotic dogs and other such toys and gadgets. Eventually, Anni found what she was looking for. The old and battered box containing the camping stove and its component parts left its hiding place unwillingly, bringing with it a number of other items which looked as though they had been packed "just in case" they were useful and for no better reason.

"She's not the most practical person then," Dee commented.

"Well," Anni began, then paused to think of the words to describe her friend, "She is and she isn't. Neither Say nor myself would have thought of bringing a camping stove. In fact, there are probably lots of things in here that we will need at some point but neither of us thought to bring, just because it wasn't easy to do so. Cat knew she could get this lot here, so she brought everything she could think of that might be of use. She was in the Guides. Their motto is "Be Prepared", like the Scouts, and Cat must be prepared for just about anything with this lot!"

"Did you work here then? Or did she?"

"Cat worked here. I worked in the chocolate stall. Say worked in D'Arcy's restaurant on the lower ground floor, we went past it. So Cat's the designated technical person and Say's the designated chef."

"Either of them any good?"

"Well, Say was a trainee chef when the virus hit. She's always been good at cooking. Cat used to work for one of the major satellite companies in their top tech team before she came here for uni, then got the job in here with the gadgets. She was always messing about with things. They let her take the rejects home, to see if she could fix them or make anything else out of them. It was a lot of trial and error to begin with, but she eventually got the know the wiring systems quite well. She got on well with the old caretaker here: I think he helped her and taught her a bit. He was telling her all about how the new Jenny system was going to work just before he died. He was one of the first to go, I think."

"And what about you?"

"I appear to be resident peacemaker in cheif!" Anni gave a wry laugh, "I've had a lot of practice: we're a moody lot!"

"How many more are you expecting?"

"Well, there are my two flatmates: Bobbi and Amy. They went to nurse Bobbi's Mum. Then there were a couple of friends of Say's and a couple of friends of Cat's. There should be plenty room for us in here, even with the odd extra. It's not the largest mall in the city centre, or even in this street, but it is the easiest to defend. Or, at least, it will be by the time we've got it set up and running properly. Come on. Let's go see Say."

Anni led Dee out of the store and along the walkway to the Pen Store. Inside, they found Say, still busily arranging things. At first, she didn't notice their approach. Then, when Anni stepped forward to give her the camping stove, she jumped and turned round.

"Oh, Anni, there you are. I was wondering if everything was all right. I could do with a hand getting some bedding up. There are beds in the store next to my restaurant," Say spoke hurriedly, not noticing the other girl standing behind Anni until mid-ramble, "Oh! Who's this? Is this one of your flatmates, Anni?"

"This is Dee," Anni replied, watching her friends bemusing behaviour closely, "Cat found her in the generator room. She needs somewhere to stay. I thought she could stay here."

"Ummmm, sure, fine. What, um, what can you do? We need all the help we can get right now!"

"I was in the cadets at the university. I could help with security stuff. I'm quite good at that."

"Good. Good. Well, that's that sorted. Could you give me a hand bringing a bed up?"

"Sure! Of course!"

Dee and Say headed out the door, leaving Anni with the camping stove in her hands. She placed it down on a nearby table.

"Oh well," she murmured, "I guess I'd better start getting my own place sorted out!"

***********************

A motorbike roared through the city streets. The passenger clung to the bike's rider, resting their head, mournfully on the rider's shoulder. Eventually, the bike stopped in the private parking lot of a block of secure flats, not that security meant much these days. The place was deserted. Amy removed her helmet and turned to her passenger, who did the same. Bobbi rubbed at the mascara stains below her eyes.

"Well," Amy said, "We're here."

Getting off the bike she led Bobbi into the block of flats. The security entrance was broken down already and the first few doors had been kicked in. There was a stench like rotting flesh that came from the third door: obviously the reason the looting had progressed no further. Amy covered her nose and led her friend on. Bobbi followed, heedless of the smell. When they reached the apartment they had shared with Anni, they found the door still, mercifully, intact. Amy unlocked it and they went inside. On the kitchen counter in their open plan kitchen and living room there was a note. It read: "Gone to the mall with Cat and Say. Come join us when you get back. Take the door furthest up the hill."

"She's gone," Bobbi said, her voice flat and emotionless.

"She was right to," Amy replied, "She wants us to go join her. Come on. Fill a bag with whatever you want to take and lets get going. It shouldn't take us long to get there."

"Where are we going?"

"The Feathers Mall. Where she used to work. She's there with some others who used to work there. You remember Cat and Say?"

"I know Say. I think I've only met Cat once. Rather weird girl, but good with a cocktail shaker."

"That's the one. Came head to head with a few other people at that party if I remember rightly?"

"Yeah, took both Say and Anni to calm her down at one point!" Bobbi laughed a little at the memory and Amy smiled to see her spirits lifted.

"Come on," she said, "Let's get packed and on our way before someone knicks the bike!"

After hastily packing her own bag and most of Bobbi's, Amy led her friend back out of the reeking building and into the car park. Thankfully, due to the general desertion of anywhere this far out from city centre, the bike was still there and intact. Strapping their bags on and their helmets down the girls set off once again to find Anni and their new home.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Say negotiated the basement corridors with a plate of salad in her hand.

"Cat? Cat," she called, stopping to put the salad down on Old Henry's desk, "are you here?"

"Couldn't get to grips with the Trangia then?" Cat asked, suddenly.

Say jumped a little, then turned to see her friend hanging upside down from the support beams. She jumped again, then sighed.

"What on earth are you doing up there?" Say asked.

"The power cables go through these tubes," Cat replied, indicating the large, plastic tubes above her head, "I have to check the switches in the junction boxes. It won't take long. We should have the power back up in an hour."

"And I take it you've never heard of such a thing as a ladder?" Her friend commented wryly.

"Just couldn't find it, that's all," Cat shrugged upside-down.

"Well come down just now and have some lunch! You're making me sea sick hanging upside-down like that!"

"All right, all right. Keep your hair on!" Cat reached up and pulled herself up into a sitting position on the beam, sat for a minute looking around in a bewildered fashion, then jumped down to land with a thud next to the nearest generator.

"I don't see why you have to go clambering all over the place," Say chided as Cat perched on the desk to eat her food, "You'll break your neck one of these days. Then were will you be?"

"Really, Say," Cat said matter-of-factly, "I was born in the year of the monkey, under the star sign of the lion and my name's Cat: what _do_ you expect?"

"Well, at least you're doing some work!"

"Look, just because you feel you have to keep running around non-stop all day doesn't mean everyone else feels the same way! Anni prefers to spend her time enjoying her life, I presume it's Anni you're talking about, rather than spending all her time worrying and wondering what's to be done next. She's a good worker when she has to be."

"I know, I know. I just feel that there's so much to be done here still. Just to get this place into a liveable condition."

"It's not like we have a deadline! We only need to sort out beds to sleep in before the day's out. That's already done. I mean, fair enough, the power's a bit of a priority, but that seems to have become my department. Food's another, but that's yours. Let Anni be the diplomat. She's good at it. We need someone to keep an eye on that new girl and watch out for our friends arriving. I'm stuck down here and you're too busy whatever I tell you. Anni's the only other option."

"Hmm. Dee, the new girl, has offered to help with security. She was in the cadets."

"Really."

"You don't like her?"

"I don't know her."

"You don't like her."

"I thought Christy was going to take care of security?"

"Christy isn't here. Until she is, Dee's got the job. If and when Christy arrives, she can advise her and work with her."

Cat rolled her eyes and handed Say her empty plate. Climbing up on the desk, she swung herself back up into the support beams.

"I'd best get back to these switches," she said, "Thanks for the food."

Say rolled her eyes and left.

***********************

Dee and Anni were busy chatting in the Reiss shop on the ground floor, which Dee had decided would be her room. They had started clearing things out of the old fashion store, but then started chatting and the work had stopped.

"We really should get a bed sorted out, now that Say has hers," Dee said eventually, "Why don't we pick one for your room while we're down there?"

"Yes, I should get on to that. I think I'll go for the Moda in Pelle shop, just above here. It faces my chocolate stall. Plus it leaves the bigger shoe shop for Bobbi."

"Bobbi?"

"My flatmate. She and Amy, my other flatmate, are two of those we are expecting. Bobbi loves shoes. I think she'd like the Pied A Terre shop just over there. I'm pretty sure Amy would go for something like Karen Millen, or maybe Monsoon."

Still chatting, the two girls headed down the powerless escalator to the Bo Concept store on the lower ground floor. It was a home furnishing store and contained beds, desks, chairs, shelves, cupboards, wardrobes and many other desirable items besides. After some deliberation, Dee picked out a large bed and the two girls set about dissecting it into carryable parts. All the Bo Concept beds were similar in general fashion and all came apart and went back together quite easily, making it much easier for two girls to move such a large bed up a flight of stairs to Dee's room.

***********************

A motorbike trundled through the back streets of city centre, cutting corners on it's way to the Feathers mall, its two passengers balancing both themselves and their bags. Turning out of a small, still cobbled alley, the bike made its way down the hill to the building with the conspicuous iron-work peacock perched gracefully on its brow. When they reached the door furthest up the hill, the first rider drew the bike to a halt.

"Well," Amy sighed, as she removed her crash helmet, "We're here!"


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Amy left Bobbi sitting on the bike and walked up to the metal gate across the doorway. Rattling on the grill she called out Anni's name as loudly as she could, then waited.

And waited.

"She's not here, is she?" Bobbi cried from the bike.

"It's a big place in there, Bobbi," Amy sighed, turning to look back at her friend, "She's probably just upstairs or something."

Amy turned back to the grill and gave another yell. This time she was answered with a shout from within and the sound, after a few moments, of feet hurrying towards her. The door opened. Say and Anni stood there, with a third girl behind them. Say hurried forward to unlock the gate and let the two girls in.

For the first time in weeks, Bobbi smiled. It was a smile of relief, but it was still a smile. As she and Amy moved to wheel the bike inside, the third girl spoke up.

"You're not bringing _that_ inside, are you?"

"Well we're not leaving it out here!" Bobbi cried, indignantly, "Somebody might come along and half-inch it!"

"There _is_ plenty room, Dee," Anni said, diplomatically.

The two new arrivals followed Anni and Dee back inside. Say locked the gate and door behind them, then followed the muddy trail of the bike.

"You went through the back streets, didn't you?" Say asked Amy as she caught up with them.

"Yeah, it's quicker."

"And muddier."

"Hm? Oh! Sorry!" Amy pulled a face as she looked back at the tire tracks, "So, is this Dee girl someone from here?"

"No, not exactly. Cat found her down in the basement. I don't know how she got in. She's in charge of security, at least until Christy arrives. Then the two of them can fight it out between them. She was a cadet at the uni up the road. I don't remember what she studied."

"So where is Cat?"

"Down in the basement, trying to get the generators back up and running."

Bobbi and Amy let the bike rest at the top of the sloping walkway into the mall. They had been in here once or twice, but most of the shops were far too expensive for their student budget. The staircase on the far side of the mall was quite beautiful when it wasn't littered with people.

"Come on," cried Anni, gleefully, "I've got the perfect stores picked out for you!"

She led them along the sidewalk, past Whistles and "Crabtree and Evelyn" to the Monsoon store.

"Here we are! Amy, have a look: it's so you. And it joins on to the Accessorize store next door!"

"And what about me?" Bobbi asked.

"Just round the corner, here," Anni led her forward a little and pointed to the Pied A Terre store.

"Ooh! I love that shop!" Bobbi cried, rushing forward.

"That'll keep her busy for a while," laughed Amy, "And I think I'll have great fun with these two stores. There's a bed store in here, isn't there?"

"Bo Concept, just downstairs," Anni nodded.

"And there's a linens shop next door to it," Dee added.

"Right, well, I'll get the stuff off the bike and then we'll start getting everything sorted. I don't suppose there's any food going: I'm starving and I'll bet Bobbi is too. We've both missed lunch and Bobbi hasn't eaten for a day or two."

"How is she?"

"Getting there. You know."

Anni nodded. For most of them, the pain of losing their family had come early into the onset of the virus. Bobbi's mother, being more isolated in her lochside retreat, had been one of the last adults to go. For a long time, Bobbi had thought she might escape it entirely. Now reality was hitting home with a startling effect.

"I'll go and ask Say for some food for you," Dee offered, "give you some time to catch up."

Anni and Amy carried first Amy's gear to her room, then Bobbi's gear to the shoe store, where Bobbi was quite happily rummaging around the displays.

"You'll need to clear a space for a bed," Amy called.

"Okay," Bobbi replied, still rummaging.

As Anni and Amy sorted out the displays in the Monsoon store, there was a clanking and a buzzing noise that seemed deafening after the previous silence of the mall. Rushing out to the door of the shop, Anni saw that the escalators had come back to life. The power was back on.

A few minutes later, Say came into the store with a plate of salad in her hand.

"I'd already started on it when the power came back on," she told Amy, "else I would have made you something hot."

"It's fine. It's just to keep me going until dinner and to try to get Bobbi to eat again. What did she say when you went in with her plate?"

"Oh, she was a little distracted by the shoes," Say laughed, "I left it on the counter for her. At least we won't have to worry about it getting cold."

Amy was just tucking in to her salad when Cat walked up the stairs.

"Well, everything seems to be working so far," she said, "Have you checked the freezers and fridges yet, Say?"

"Nope. I was busy when the power came on. I'm just on my way to check them now."

"We still have to hook up the other solar panels so I'm going to switch off the escalators for the time being. We don't need them guzzling electricity. I'll leave the lift on this side on in case there's any heavy stuff to go up. Anybody know what the weather's like outside?"

"Grey and getting blacker," Amy answered, "It looked stormy in the West and the wind is blowing it right over towards us."

"Well, maybe I'll leave that task for today. Last thing I want is to be messing around on that roof in a storm!"

Say followed when Cat left, walking with her down the stairs.

"Do you think we'll have enough electricity until you can get the other panels hooked up?" Say asked.

"Yeah, we should be fine," Cat replied, "So long as we get the elevators off, they take up the biggest chunk of power, there should be plenty to go round. I'll have to switch each one off separately, and the switches for the lifts are down here too, so I'll start down here in the Courtyard and work my way up."

"When do you think your friends should be here? It would help if we had an idea of when to look out for them: this is a big place."

"I don't know. They're both coming from different parts of town and I've no idea how they're getting here. Britt's the one I'm most worried about: she's coming from Ibrox! But what about your two?"

"Hm. Well, Christy said they should be here the day after us, but whether she means morning or afternoon, I really couldn't say. I think it depends when she can get that boyfriend of hers out of bed!"

"Shame there's a guy on his way: I think Anni was hoping to reform the Amazons right here in the heart of Glasgow!"

"Well, there's hope yet for our budding Hippolyta! We won't know anyone is coming for sure until they're here!"

"True. I just hope there are more of us than this if there's any trouble outside. I wouldn't like to try defending this place with just the six of us! That's less people than there are exits!"

"I just hope we can get them all sealed off securely! Dee will have to show us how she got in, then she's got the job of securing this place. Don't sigh! If you don't trust her, you can go round with her!"


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The afternoon went almost smoothly, as far as the security issues were concerned, with only a couple of arguments betweeen Cat and Dee over how would be best to seal up one of the exits and whether or not to leave one other exit open. On the ground level, however, where Amy and Bobbi were settling in, Amy and Anni kept a close eye on Bobbi as she went about decorating her shoe store to suit her.

"I'm worried," Amy whispered to Anni as they repositioned a bed they had just constructed from the one of the flat packs from the furniture store below, "She was like a zombie this morning, from the funeral right up until we got here. Now she's like a bumble bee high on caffeine! Zooming all over the place, trying on different shoes with every different job she does in there!"

"I know," Anni replied, "but it'll pass. Bobbi's always been mad about shoes, now she has something to distract her from her pain. It might even do her good!"

"Just so long as she doesn't get totally distracted!"

***********************

The girl walked through the abandoned streets of the city, hugging her holdall to her and trying to ignore the pain caused by the large rambler's rucksack cutting into her shoulders and back. The faux fur collar of her jacket caught the collar of her white shirt and turned it up to crease backwards and cut into her neck. Her grey flanel hipsters were stained with mud where the flared bootleg hems had been dragged through a deeper puddle than her high, sturdy heeled boots had been able to raise her out of. Strands of loose brown hair had broken free from the high ponytail on the back of the girl's head and whipped about her face, getting in her mouth and tangling themselves behind her glasses. Mascara ran down the girls face in tear-made tracks as she turned into the next street and trudged, apathetically, up the hill.

***********************

Another girl ran through the back streets of the Merchant City, heading desperately for City Centre. Her pink, ruche-necked top was torn and hanging down over one shoulder. She wore no jacket, carried no pack: they had been left behind, long ago, to escape her persuers. She stumbled blindly, her eyes clouded with panic. Her glasses sat askew on her face and the band holding one of two braids in place had gone, letting her dark hair fly back freely on one side of her head. Her trousers were torn at the knees and the sole was hanging off the front part of one buckled shoe.

Seeing George Square loom out of the shadows ahead of her, the girl put on another spurt of speed and raced out into the light and across the square. She stumbled and fell as she crossed the next road, but there was no longer any traffic to beware of. She picked her self up and carried on running, not looking back to see if she was still being chased but heading straight for her goal.

***********************

"I still say we should have sealed it!" Dee cried as the two girls made their way up from the lower ground floor.

"It has a grill, which we can operate from in here easily enough, and it leads out into a more or less hidden courtyard from which you have to go up one flight of steps to get to street level. It's defendable and we can get out that way if we have to!" Cat replied.

"The basement entry to the sewers is a safer way out!"

"Oh come on Dee! This is Scotland! In fact, it's Glasgow! Sewers here flood! Even if we are up a hill, we're far too close to the river to risk having that as our only other emergency exit!"

"I still think we're leaving ourselves vulnerable!"

"This is a mall! You can't turn it into Fort Knox, it's just not do-able! We'll always have weak spots, we just have to do the best we can to protect them, without shutting ourselves in a prison!"

"Guys what is the racket all about!" Amy shouted, meeting the two at the top of the first flight of stairs.

"Just a slight difference of opinion," Dee answered.

Cat glared at her adversary in reply. Amy and Anni glanced at each other, then sighed.

"Perhaps you should start sorting your rooms and your stuff out?" Anni suggested, hopefully.

"Yeah, I guess," Cat sighed, "Where's Say?"

Anni opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a rattling of the grill at the main door by which they had all entered. She looked to the door, then back at Cat who, on cue, produced her set of keys and headed off to the doorway. Dee followed her but Anni placed a hand on Amy's arm and whispered to her to go and find Say and bring her to them before hurrying off to catch up with Cat and Dee.

Cat reached the door and called through to ask who was there. There was a tearful sob and someone shouted "Me". Cat opened the door as Anni caught up with them. At first she only opened it a little, peering through to see the owner of the sobs. On seeing the face outside, she opened the door fully and pulled the grill across, letting the girl enter and walk on into the mall with no more than a nod to any of them. As the party reached the top of the walkway into the mall, the grill and door being once again fastened, Amy and Say joined them. The new girl saw Say and, dropping her bag, ran straight into her arms and burst into loud sobs.

"Christy!" Say exclaimed, "What's wrong? What happened? Where's James? How did you get here so soon?"

Christy pulled herself back from Say and wiped her eyes on her jacket sleeve.

"I-I stole a car. I would have been here sooner, but I crashed it," she hiccuped in reply, "I'm okay, just a bit sore. It wasn't bad, just enough to stop the thing working."

"Where is the car?"

"Uh, it's kinda, um, in the river. I went off the road where the banks aren't built up or I'd be in there too."

"And what about James? He's not..."

"No, he's not. Well, not as far as I know. He's gone," Christy sobbed, but this time there was anger there, "He left me! He sodding left me! I got up one morning and he was gone. I found a note on the breakfast bar and that was it: gone!"

"Oh, honey, come here," Say cried hugging her friend again, "Well, you're here now and you're all in one piece, thank goodness, so let's find you somewhere to sleep and some clean clothes."

The others were left standing as Say disappeared up the stairs with Christy. They looked at each other then Cat shrugged and headed off up the stairs to her room. Amy wandered back to Bobbi's room and stopped to look in the door to where her friend was happily telling a pair of shoes why they were being put up on a high shelf and another pair why they were staying in their box. Dee trudged down the stairs to the furniture store to pick out a few choice items and Anni stood alone, looking around her, hugging herself and biting her lip before wandering into a nearby shop to look for something.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Night drew near. So much had been done that day, but there was still so much to do. Say had gone upstairs with Christy and settled her in a store right next door to the Pen Shop. It had been a lingerie shop, but now most of the stands were out in the hallway and the interior was mid-way through being reformed into a half-decent place to sleep.

Cat had emptied out most of Illuminati and fixed a bed in the corner by the window. What confused Anni, however, when she went to check on her friend, was the heavy canvas covering over most of the central gap of the sausage shaped checkout counter. The till had been removed and a computer monitor from the store's back room was now in its place at the uncovered end of the counter. Anni peered over the edge of the counter to see Cat plugging various connectors into the back of the computer's CPU, which sat on the floor, beneath the counter.

"What _have_ you set up here?" Anni asked, amused.

"What? It's just the old accounts computer! I figured it would be more use out here than in that store-cupboard of an office!"

"I was talking about this!" Anni exclaimed, pointing at the canvas.

"Oh, that's just my 'den'. You can come in and have a look if you want," Cat replied pulling the counter gate open before shuffling the CPU back into place.

Anni lifted the counter top of the gate and picked her way though into the narrow space. Crouching down on her hands and knees she could see little more than a dark passage where Cat had covered the counter in canvas.

"Oh, er, hang on," Cat said, suddenly.

Reaching behind her, Cat flicked a switch on the counter wall and the 'den' was suddenly illuminated with a number of fibre optic cables and gadgets.

"How much power it this going to take?" Anni asked as the computer also buzzed into life.

"Not a lot. They're all fibre optics apart from the odd one or two, and of course the luminous ones, but they won't work until they've taken in some light, so I've rigged it so that they all come off the same light source. It's in the counter cupboard, there," Cat pointed to one of the closed cupboards, which was emiting a faint glow around the edges, "The computer will take the most of the power, but even then, that's not that much and, if I can get it to work like I want it to, it could be really useful."

"Useful how?" Anni asked, suspiciously.

"Well, for starters, we can load up encyclopedia programs and other stuff. Plus, if we're lucky, I might be able to get it to connect to the web."

"I thought the phone lines were all down?"

"Well, they might be," Cat admitted, "But until we know for sure, there's a chance they could still be running; for the moment anyway. I dare say the phone lines and the web servers will carry on for a while, even without anyone to run them. Once something goes wrong though, with no-one to fix them, then they'll go down."

"You think?"

"It's a possibility."

***********************

The light was fading, but there was still enough to see the form of a young girl lying on the cobbled road of a side street. She had fallen there and, not having the energy to pick herself up again, now lay, exhausted and motionless, on the cold stones. Her eyes opened slightly at the sound of voices drawing near, but they closed again, too tired to know or care if the voices belonged to friend or foe.

A small group of boys passed the entrance to the side street. One of them gave a shout and the others turned at his command and followed him to the girls side. She could hear him speaking to her, asking her questions, but everything was hazy and she couldn't make out the words. Not getting any reply to his questions, the young man picked the girl up in his arms and turned to leave. The girl could hear one of his followers questioning him, but he barked out something like an order and the other boy was silenced.

Barely able to focus on what was going on around her, the girls was vaguely aware of being carried out of the side street and along another, larger, road. She had no energy to protest. All she could do was hope that she was being carried to a place of safety.

***********************

Christy lay on the bed that she and Say had brought up into the old lingerie shop. Above her face she held a ring. It was a gold ring, with a single, small diamond set in it. It was her engagement ring. James had given it to her only a month ago. He had said it was a real diamond, so that it would last even longer than they would. Well, he'd been right about that anyway!

Christy turned the ring over and over in her fingers, watching the light jump and sparkle off the clear stone. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't hear Say wander in with a bowl of pasta.

"We got the cookers working," Say said, suddenly, making her friend jump and clutch the ring tightly, "I thought you'd like something to eat."

"Thanks," Christy replied, mechanically.

"Look on the bright side honey: at least you'll never run out of knickers!"

Christy gave a half laugh and sat up.

"Yeah, I guess," she murmured, taking the plate from Say.

Handing her friend the fork she had brought up, Say sat down on the bed and watched as Christy ate her food.

"I thought D'Arcy's was French stuff? Isn't pasta Italian?"

"We raided Il Pavone's stores and this seemed the easiest thing to sort out for us all. You were up here. Bobbi's still playing with her shoes. Amy and Dee were busy doing an inventory of all the stores and I have no idea what Cat and Anni are up to. I thought I heard them talking in Cat's room earlier, but when I looked in, I couldn't see anyone."

"So, is that all the stores open now?"

"Apart from the Whisky Store on the basement level. We left that one locked. The last thing we need is someone getting drunk!"

"Pity, right now I feel like it would do me the world of good!"

"Maybe once we've got ourselves sorted out. Until we can be sure of our security, it's best it stays locked. We've got some brandy and such in the restaurants for cooking with. I'm sure I could sneak you up a glass. It's not the best in the world, but it's alcohol."

"Nah, it's okay."

Once again, Christy fell silent. Say tried changing the subject.

"Have you got everything sorted in here then?"

"More or less. I could do with some stuff out of the art store, but I'll need decent light for that, so I'll sort that out tomorrow. At least we've everything we need in this place."

"Almost everything. But our food supplies, extensive as they are, won't last forever! Once we've got this place sorted out, we'll really have to think about how we're going to get more food once this lot's gone."

"How long do you think it'll last?"

"The frozen stuff and cupboard stuff will last months, maybe years. The fresh food and cold store stuff, less. In some cases, much less! If you want a drink of milk, believe me: there's enough! We have so many restaurants and bistros in here! Plus there's a Starbucks on the ground floor! There's enough milk in this place to float a small boat! There's no way we'll drink it all before it goes off!"

"Maybe we could trade it?"

"I guess. It's certainly an option. But who with?"

"There's groups of kids ganging up all over the city. They'll need things like milk and fresh food as much as we do. If we have a surplus, we could trade our extra for things they have that we need."

"Trading with gangs?" Say sounded suspicious.

"Well, not gangs, exactly. At least, not in the seedy underworld of crime sense. Just groups of kids, sticking together for safety. Just like us. A bit like tribes."

"Well, when you put it like that, I guess it doesn't sound as bad."

"You know, if we're a tribe, we should have a name."

"Let's wait for everyone to arrive before we pick it though!"

"Who are we waiting on?"

"A couple of friends of Cat's. One of them, Britt, is due to arrive tomorrow morning sometime, we think."

"Fair enough."

Christy stood up with her empty plate to take it down to the kitchen.

"I'll wash that, don't worry," Say said, getting up and taking the plate from her, "It's late, you should get some rest."

Christy nodded and smiled.

"I'll try," she said.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Night had fallen when Britt finally woke up. She looked around her cautiously. She could remember running from a gang of kids. She could remember falling in the alleyway. She even had a vague memory of waking up and seeing a someone leaning over her. Someone with piercing grey eyes. The last memory, of someone picking her up and carrying her out of the alley, was the vaguest of all; but it must have happened because here she was, lying on a camp-bed in the midst of a small, dark room. The only light creeping through the darkness was the greyish glow of moonlight through the clouds she could see out of a small window.

After a while, her eyes began to get used to the poor light and shapes became vaguely discernible. There was a table in the room, with a bowl and a glass jug of some clear liquid, like water. A door broke the matte grey line of the wall opposite and there was another, smaller table beside it. On her other side, there was a large beanbag, upon which a boy lay sleeping. In the shadowy darkness, Britt could barely make out his features but what she could see gave her the impression that he was about her own age. Whether he was the boy who had leant over her, she could not tell: the only things she remembered about that face were the eyes.

Slowly, carefully, Britt sat up in the camp-bed. She tried to make the least noise possible, but the bed was old and creaked loudly. The figure on the beanbag stirred, but didn't wake. Britt turned round to look behind her at the rest of the table with the water on it. There was also something that looked like bread and cheese under a clear plastic dome cover. Getting out of the bed, Britt made her way over to the table. Hidden behind the bowl, beside the water, was a glass and small towel. In the bowl itself was a small flannel.

Britt poured some water into the bowl and washed her face. The cold water felt good against her skin, washing away the dust and sweat of the race she had been running before she passed out. Pouring some of the water into the glass, she drank deeply: she hadn't realised how thirsty she was until the water touched her lips. Finishing the glass in one draught, she refilled it and moved along the table to the food. As she had thought, there was a clear, plastic, dome-shaped cover over the bread, just like the one her mother had used to keep the flies off the sandwiches at summer parties. Setting the cover to one side, Britt cut off a slice of cheese with an old, rather blunt knife lying nearby and tore off a chunk of bread.

The bread was slightly dry, but good enough and not yet stale. The cheese was a strong cheddar that, in the morning light, might turn out to be a deep orange in hue but, for now, was reduced to a slightly warmer shade of greyness than the table itself. Britt sipped at the water and nibbled at the bread and cheese as she took in her surroundings. Her eyes were now fully adjusted to the light and she could see that the room she was in looked like it had once been a rather small office. In the corner behind the table, out of sight of the silvery-grey light seeping through the window, was a bulky, old, grey, metal filing cabinet. The table on which the food and water were situated now appeared to be a desk and, sitting tucked under the far side of it, was what looked like an office chair: the kind that goes up and down, swirls round in circles and had wheels on the bottom, simply to make your working environment comfortable, easy to work in and, in most cases, much more fun! Britt walked round to the far side of the desk and, as quietly as she could, pulled out the chair and sat down.

There were a couple of drawers on either side of her. All, it seemed, were locked. Britt turned her attention back to the food on the table and, pulling the board with the bread and cheese on it towards her, cut herself some more cheese and tore off some more bread. Eventually, hunger subsided into drowsiness and Britt found her eyelids becoming heavy. She considered getting up and moving back to the camp-bed, but the chair really was so comfortable and she would only make a lot of noise and she might even wake the boy on the beanbag... As her head came to rest on her arms, folded on the desk before her, she felt sleep overcome her once more.

The figure on the beanbag smiled, then turned onto his other side and went back to sleep.

***********************

Cat had never been a good sleeper. Sure, once she had gone without sleep for a few days, she would eventually burn out and sleep like a log for as long as you let her, but until then, she would grab a few hours each night, in between bouts of wakefulness. Her first night in the mall was no different. She had been late to bed, having stayed up to make sure the computer was working properly and had loaded up all her initial software, had slept for a while and now was wide awake again. The computer was off and the entire room still. Anni was asleep in the smaller shoe shop just across the corner of the walkway outside, while Say and Christy slept in the two stores at the opposite end. The others were on the floor below: Amy in the three small rooms of Monsoon and Accessorise; Dee in the large Reiss shop opposite; and Bobbi, babbling quietly to herself amidst dreams of shoes, in the larger shoe shop on the corner by Amy's stores.

Cat felt her stomach complain. She was hungry. She was always hungry if she woke up in the middle of the night and it was not unheard of for her to have eaten her breakfast halfway between going to bed and getting up again! Easing herself out of her cocoon of a sleeping bag, she pulled on her glasses and slipper socks and tiptoed across the floor. As she reached the door, she paused.

She was sure she had heard a noise.

Easing herself along into the shadow of the doorway, she peered round the edge of the short, tunnel-like corridor leading into the store.

Silence.

Then she heard it again: a faint, gentle clink, like a cup on a saucer.

As she watched, she saw a head appear above the side of the walkway barrier and the escalator to the floor above: someone was coming up the escalator from the floor below. Cat ducked back a little and watched as Dee made her way up the now immobile stairway, one hand balancing a plate with a glass and some cutlery on it and the other carrying a large bowl. Turning to face Cat, briefly, then continuing up the next escalator, Dee was clearly visible as the hazy light of the moon and stars filtered through the habitual layer of cloud that hung over the city at this time of year and the wide glass roof of the mall atrium.

Slowly and quietly, Cat slipped out of her hiding place and followed Dee up the stairs. The former cadet was so intent upon keeping the glass upon the plate that the idea that she may have been followed never entered her head. When Dee reached the top of the escalator, however, Cat, still some distance behind, lost sight of her. Keeping low, she hastened up the stairs and, at the top, looked around cautiously. But Dee was nowhere to be seen.

Cat stood up and had a good look round, straining her eyes in the half light. The shadows, however, contained nothing more than shadow and Dee appeared to have vanished.

Cat made her way back down the stairs, somewhat half-heartedly, and into her own room. All thought of food, or sleep, now forgotten, she waited patiently for Dee to return. In about ten minutes, just as boredom was about to set in, Dee appeared on the escalator, heading back down. Whatever had been in the bowl was now gone and the glass was now empty. Oblivious to her observer, Dee turned the corner and continued down the lower escalator to the floor below. Cat paused for a moment, considering what she had seen, then went back to bed.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Christy woke early. She always woke early. Pulling on a pair of dark blue, flared hipster jeans, with silver embroidered stars down the side of each thigh, and a short blue and green marbled t-shirt with a silver design embroidered on its front, she kicked some of the spilled contents of her bag under the bed and started demolishing the lingerie displays still hanging on the walls of the shop.

By the time Say, wearing dark brown, suede, bootleg trousers and a fitted cream blouse with three-quarter-length, cuffed sleeves, wandered next door to see if her friend was up yet, Christy had the walls cleared of all traces of underwear and was rearranging shelves to a usable height.

"Hey," she greeted Say, one hand stretching up to reach one of the higher shelves, "could you get this down for me? It's just a bit too high!"

"Sure!" Say, the tallest of the inhabitants of the mall, reached up and disconnected the shelf and its supports, "no problem."

"Thanks," Christy took the shelf from her friend and fixed it into a position she could easily reach.

"How did you sleep?"

"Same as always."

"Really?"

"Walking all day tires you out!"

"I guess..."

"What is it?"

"Are you sure you're okay, Precious?"

Christy smiled at her friend's use of her nickname.

"I'm fine," she sighed, "why wouldn't I be?"

"You just seem to be, well, kinda running on auto!"

"I am. But I'll be fine! Stop mothering me, Say, I'll be okay!"

Say pulled a face and shrugged.

"Then I guess you won't be wanting pancakes for breakfast..." she said, tauntingly, as she turned and headed for the stairs.

"Hey, now I never said that!" Christy cried, running to catch up with Say.

***********************

Pale, autumnal daylight filled the small room when Britt woke up. Looking over at the beanbag, she found the boy sitting watching her. She had been right in guessing that he was about her own age last night. He also bore a pair of intense, sparkling grey eyes that confirmed he was the boy who had leant over her in the alley. She nicknamed him Eyes. He watched her with an amused smile.

"I wondered when you would wake up," he said, smiling, "or rather, wake up again!"

Britt half laughed and looked away, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Look, I know it's a bit of a cliché," she said, turning her attention back to Eyes, "but where am I?"

"One of the back offices of the Counting House," Eyes replied, "It was my Dad's before."

The Counting House was a large pub and restaurant just off of George Square.

"And, uh, who are you?" Britt asked, hesitantly.

"I could ask you the same question!" Eyes smirked.

Before she could stop herself, Britt felt herself smile back: his grin was highly infectious!

"You tell me your name and I'll tell you mine!" Britt grinned.

Eyes looked down, then back to Britt.

"My name's Steven," he admitted, "But everyone calls me Steve."

"Everyone?" Britt raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Nuh-uh, you first," Steve shook his head, "we had a deal: my name for yours."

"Brittany..." Britt smiled, "but everyone calls me Britt."

"Everyone?"

"Your turn."

***********************

Amy pulled on a bright pink t-shirt with a yellow smilie face printed on it. She was wearing dark blue frayed ended bellbottom jeans that were easy to move around in. Grabbing the top part of her hair and twisting it round into a messy bun, she shuffled out of the old Monsoon shop and round the corner to Bobbi's shoe shop. Bobbi was sleeping soundly. Amy leant against the door and watched her friend sleeping. At least in sleep the mania of grief that seemed to have taken hold of Bobbi was less apparent.

Pushing her glasses up on her nose, Amy turned towards the stairs, then stopped. Something caught her eye across the mall. It was like a shadow from the upper terrace. In an instant, however, it was gone. Amy hurried forwards and looked up at the top level, but could see nothing out of the ordinary. Perhaps it was just a bird flying over the glass roof.

Making her way down to the lower level and the mosaic floored courtyard, Amy started when another movement caught the corner of her vision. Turning, she saw Dee walking across the courtyard floor towards her.

"Do we have to wait on Say to get breakfast?" Dee asked, yawning, "Or can we just help ourselves? I'm starving!"

"I dunno," Amy shrugged, "but by the look of things you can ask her yourself: here she is now!"

Say, followed swiftly by Christy, came flying down the ornate staircase to the courtyard level. Both were shrieking giggling like schoolgirls, but reined themselves to a halt as they joined Dee and Amy on the other side of the mosaic floor.

"I'm going to make pancakes," Say laughed, "anybody want some?"

"I'll stick with cereal if we have any," Amy raised an eyebrow quizzically, "I'll take some pancakes up to Bobbi though: the smell might wake her up!"

"I'll take some up too..." Dee started, pausing when she saw the others look at her oddly, then smiling, "to my room; I have things to do..."

Say and Amy regarded Dee for a moment before Christy tugged on Say's arm.

"Come on: pancakes!" she cried, pulling Say and Amy back to the matter in hand.

Still laughing a little, Say followed her friend up the few stairs into D'Arcy's with Dee, then Amy tagging along behind.

Half an hour later, Amy and Dee left the restaurant and Amy watched as Dee headed up the nearest frozen escalator, passing a yawning Anni and bleary eyed Cat on their way down.

"Where's she off to with that plate?" Cat mumbled to Amy as they passed.

"Oh, she said she had things to do in her room. Wanted to take some food up to keep her going," Amy replied, shrugging, "It's not like she didn't eat enough down here though!"

"Hmm," Cat frowned and rubbed the back of her neck as she carried on into the restaurant.

"What is it?" Anni asked, sleepily, as they sat down beside the restaurant bar.

"Hmm?" Cat put her head down on her hands and tried to ignore the sounds of Say clattering around in the kitchen.

"Why were you frowning at Dee taking some extra food?"

"Hmm..."

"Quit going back to sleep and answer me!" Anni dug an elbow into her friend's ribs; Cat winced and sat up.

"What? It's probably nothing!"

"What's probably nothing?"

"Oh, just something that happened last night!"

"When you were asleep?"

"I couldn't sleep."

"So what happened?"

"Well, I was going to go get a drink or something when I heard a noise on the escalator. I looked out of the store and there was Dee: walking up the escalator with some food and a glass of something."

"A glass of what?"

"Well I don't know: it was dark!"

"So where did she go?"

"Upstairs."

"Upstairs?"

"Yeah, up to the terrace on the top level. You know, where the ice cream shop is?"

"Oh, I know it well..."

"Well, I followed her up the escalator, but when I got to the top, she had disappeared. I went back down and waited on her and when she went past, on her way back down, the food and drink were gone!"

"So, what? You think she went all the way up there for a midnight feast?"

"I dunno. I know I wouldn't!"

"Well then: if it wasn't her eating that food... who was it?"


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Anni and Cat agreed to meet in Cat's den in half an hour. Anni had changed into her more usual attire of overdyed jeans and a matching, fitted, short-sleeved shirt, but Cat had returned to her khakis and t-shirt from the day before.

"When you were packing, did you forget to pack any clothes?" Anni asked as she curled up with her back to the surrounding cupboards.

"What? They were clean on yesterday, it's not like we've got a laundrette in here and until this place is fully up and running I'm gonna need practical clothes!"

"I guess," Anni shrugged, "but even without a laundrette, we're hardly going to run short of clothes any time soon! Haven't you heard: we live in a mall!"

"Once I have time, I'll be sure to take a look! Right now, though, I have more important things to worry about!"

"What do you still have to do today?"

"Hook up the rest of the solar panels, mainly. Apart from that, there's still some stuff needs sorting out on the computer there and I've still got most of my unpacking to do."

"And somewhere in there, you want to play detective? And, let me guess, I'm the hard working, no credit sidekick?"

"Hey, I give credit where it's due!"

"Unless it's to Dee!"

"I still think she's up to something; even more so now!"

"So, what? We watch and wait for her to do something, then we follow her and find out what it is. How hard can it be to find out what one person of seven is up to in a mall this size? Besides, we went round opening all the doors yesterday, didn't we? We know what's behind each one of them."

"Not all of them. We didn't do the top level, remember? We said there was nothing important up there and it could wait until we were sure we could get the freezers for the Haagen Dazs shop up and running."

"Oh. Yeah. I remember."

"So, if Dee isn't taking the food up there to eat herself, she must be taking it to someone else. Someone who is hiding in one of the locked stores on the top level."

"So you get the other panels up and running, then we go up and unlock them. We'd have to check the freezers then anyway. And besides: Say will be wanting to do a complete inventory of the restaurants and food stores today, if I'm not much mistaken, and most of the top level is taken up by bistros and the like."

"Right. Should be easy enough. And when we find who she's hiding, we confront her about it."

"With what evidence?"

"With the person she's hiding of course!"

"Well, yes, but," Anni frowned, "Don't we need proof that Dee was the one doing the hiding?"

"But I saw her!"

"Oh, come on, Cat! You can't just say that! It was the middle of the night, it could have been anyone! You could have been dreaming!"

"Anni, you know me better than that!"

"_I_ do, yes, and Say does; but Bobbi, Amy and Christy don't. They have to have a say in everything too! Let's just say it would make matters a lot less complicated if your night-time meanderings, and an obvious dislike of the girl, were not the only basis for wanting to prove her guilty of something, whatever that something may be."

"Okay, fine. We'll see what happens. Just keep an eye on her for me, while I'm up on the roof."

"Won't you need a hand with that?"

"Yeah, but I can't take Dee or she won't go anywhere and I can't take you because I need you to keep an eye on Dee. Amy is probably busy looking after Bobbi and Say and Christy have been busy muttering between themselves all the way through breakfast."

"That doesn't mean they couldn't lend a hand."

"I guess. I'll ask."

***********************

"So," Steve said, putting his glass to one side, "Now you've met my 'everyone', when are you gonna tell me about yours?"

"There isn't really a lot to tell," Britt shrugged, "My friend, Cat, asked me if I wanted to join her, some of the girls she works, worked, with and some of their friends."

"Where?"

"Oh, not far. I can get there easily from here," Britt got up off of the bar stool she was sitting on and turned towards the exit, "Thanks for looking after me."

"Hey, wait!" Steve cried, getting to his feet and catching her arm, "surely you're gonna do me the curtesy of letting me walk you home?"

"Oh, I, um, I guess I could."

"Great, let's go then," Steve grinned, it was a contagious grin and Britt couldn't help quietly returning it as he turned to the boy guarding the door, "I should be back soon, Joe. If Gary's on the warpath, tell him to quit worrying, I can take care of myself."

"Does your brother worry a lot?" Britt asked as they made their way out of the building.

"Too much!" Steve muttered.

***********************

"So where do you want to start?" Christy asked as Say started organising pads of paper on the bar in D'Arcy's.

"Well," Say murmured, half to herself, "I thought we could use this pad for drinks, this one for veg, this one for meats, this one for seafood and this one for other stuff."

"Right," Christy suppressed a smile.

"We need to know what we've got, how much we have and whether or not it's about to go off soon so we'll have to find some way of taking note of that too."

"Uh-huh. Maybe we should rearrange this slightly. What if we put frozen stuff on this one, perishables on this one and drinks on this one. We can count things in category order and leave space in between for any other stuff we get from the other restaurants. That means we have a complete tally of anything likely to go off soon all on one pad, with the exception of the milk and we can always add that at the end of the list easily enough."

"This would be so much easier with a computer!" Say ran her hand through her hair.

"See, I told you it would be useful!" Cat interjected from across the room as she and Anni walked over to the two girls.

"What? You have a computer?" Christy asked turning to face the two newcomers.

"Yeah, I've been rigging up the old stock taking computer from Illuminati."

"And it works?"

"So far."

"And what about the power drainage?" Say cried.

"It won't take up that much; and for all that it does use, it's worth it! But anyway, speaking of power, I was kinda hoping I could get a hand with the other panels?"

"Well, Christy was going to help me with the start of the stock taking," Say began.

"That's okay," Anni cut in, "I can help with that and I'm sure Dee could help too."

"Why couldn't Dee help Cat?" Say asked, suspiciously.

"I don't trust her," Cat replied, quickly.

"What about Anni?"

"Scared of heights!" Anni declared, rapidly.

Say folded her arms and looked at them both carefully.

"Something's going on," she said, presently, "but you're not going to tell me are you?"

"Something like that," Cat admitted.

"Well, I guess it's all right with me," Say sighed, looking at Christy.

"Then that's settled," Christy shrugged, "I go help Cat and you get Anni and Dee."

***********************

"I wish you'd come down with me," Dee whispered, watching her companion eat, "We can't keep this up forever!"

"Just a little longer," the shadowed figure replied, meekly, "just until you've got them all on your side?"

"Bethie, that will never happen! Not with Cat around! Come on, most of them are fine. You'd like Anni, and Say. I don't know Amy or the new girl... what's her name? Chris? No, Christy. I don't know them too well, and Bobbi's a bit weird, but they're harmless. They seem like good people."

"I don't know..."

As Dee opened her mouth to reply, she heard a voice calling her name.

"Dee!"

The voice floated up the escalators to the top floor and into the room where the two girls were hiding.

"I've got to go," Dee sighed, "look, just think about it, Beth. Please? You'll have to meet them eventually."

"I'll think about it," Beth shrugged as Dee made her way out of the room and down the escalator.


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

The storm had passed by quietly during the night without even breaking and a clear, pale blue sky hung above Christy and Cat as they worked on the roof.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Christy called from the far side of a solar panel.

"Nope, that's the point!" Cat answered, opposite her, "if we can figure out how this one is connected, then we can connect the others up in the same way."

"And what if, while you're 'figuring out' how this one works, you break it and we can't get it or any of the unconnected ones working?"

"Then we just have to run off the ones we have working until I can get the others fixed up."

"And won't that put a severe dent in our energy budget?"

"Well, yes, but without the escalators and lifts, that shouldn't prove too much of a problem. We might have to condense a few freezers and fridges into one of each, but it's not like they're all gonna be full, is it?"

"You sure? Say says the freezer in D'Arcy's is packed and the cold store's pretty full too. They got their supplies in just a couple of weeks ago: what if all the restaurants did the same?"

"Ah!" Cat paused and considered, her brow wrinkling, "Well, that would pose a bit of a problem, but if they're that full, would we even be able to eat all that food?"

"I guess not. We certainly have more milk than we can use, regardless of whether or not we get these things going! I suggested to Say that we could trade it: what do you think?"

"Sounds a good idea, but who would we trade it with: we don't know any other groups of kids out there, let alone any that we could trust! Plus we'd need to know what we wanted to trade it for: it's not like we'll need food in return!"

"Well, we can sort that out soon enough, once we're all settled in. There are plenty of things we don't have that we're gonna need, especially considering you guys decided to work in the only mall in city centre without a Boots! I can't see any of us dragging along a lifetime supply of soap, shampoo or shower gel! I know I didn't! Not that I'm convinced there are any showers in here anyway."

"Oh, there are. They had to put them in to keep up with some health and safety stuff: every workplace must have showers available for staff in case they get something spilled on them or something. Who knows what! But we do have them: I'll show you where they are later. Plus we've got the hair salon."

"Oh, the Vidal Sassoon one?"

"Yep."

"Ooh, I wonder what else they've got in there!"

***********************

Anni had suggested that she, Say and Dee start working on the food inventory from "the top down", so it was pure bad luck that made Britt and Steve turn up at the door of the mall while Amy, busy trying to get Bobbi to come out of a store cupboard to eat, was out of earshot of the door. Even more bad luck dictated that someone _was_ in earshot.

As Britt hammered on the door, Steve became aware of a movement from an alley off to one side. He placed a protective hand on Britt's shoulder as the gang of kids made their way into the open to surround them. She turned to see the gang and involuntarily took a step backwards. Spotting a gap in the spreading line of kids, Steve grabbed her hand and pulled her in the direction of the space, but the gap was closed and they soon found themselves entirely encircled by the group.

As Britt and Steve found themselves herded away by the gang, Britt cast a glance back at the Feathers Mall. She thought she saw a shadow in the window of one of the top floor stores but when she looked again, it was gone.

***********************

Beth walked away from the window. She hoped the two people getting dragged off by the small crowd would be okay, but what could she do about it stuck up in a bridal store. Her black hair and clothes contrasted starkly with the white-clad store models and racks surrounding her. She curled up on her nest of blankets and nibbled at one of the remaining pancakes Dee had brought her.

***********************

"We really should get round to opening the other stores," Anni surmised, innocently, as she picked the lock of Mings restaurant on the top floor, "I seem to be getting the hang of Cat's skeleton keys: it wouldn't take me that long to go round them now."

"We're not in any great rush though, are we?" Dee replied, hurriedly, "I mean, what possible use could we have right now for a bridal wear store and a hi-fi store? The only other things up here are the art store, which we can get into from downstairs, and the stairs down to the street."

"Dee's right, Anni," Say agreed, "it's not like we need anything out of those two stores. Let's leave them until we've got the food situation sorted out."

Anni sighed and shrugged, defeated for the moment. The suggestion had not been a complete waste of breath, however, and she made a mental note of the speed, and perhaps urgency, of Dee's reply.

The lock clicked open and the grill over the door of Mings slid up easily. It had taken Anni a full ten minutes to pick the lock where it might have taken Cat only five, but she was learning quickly and had already halved the time it had taken her to pick the first lock of the mexican restaurant next to the art store. By the time she reached Pavone Express and October on the opposite side of the mall, she should be up to speed.

Say bustled into the Chinese restaurant and headed straight for the kitchens, Anni watched as Dee followed, then cast a suspicious glance at the two stores on either side of the exit stairway. Linn Hi-Fi or Berketex Brides: one of them held Dee's secret. The only question now was: which one?

***********************

"Come on, Bobbi," Amy wailed, frustrated by her failed attempts to coax her friend out of the cupboard, "you need to eat!"

"Hush little baby, don't say a word," Bobbi sang softly, cradling a tiny pair of pink patent shoes with silver buckles and rocking back and forth, "Pappa's gonna buy you a mockingbird. If that mockingbird don't sing, Pappa's gonna buy you a diamond ring..."

"Bobbi, it's a pair of shoes, not a baby! Baby shoes yes, but not a baby! Look: they've even got little silver buckles!"

"Bobby Shaftoe's gone to sea. Silver buckles on his knee. He'll come back and marry me. Bonny Bobby Shaftoe..."

"Come on, please! Here, Say made you pancakes specially! Have some while they're still warm! Please?"

"Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, bakers man. Bake me a cake as fast as you can..."

"No, Bobbi, no more nursery rhymes. No more singing. Time to eat. Come on now!"

"Shhhh," Bobbi looked at Amy earnestly, her eyes slightly glazed, "you'll wake the baby. Mustn't wake the baby."

"Bobbi, there's no baby: it's just a pair of shoes!"

"One, two, buckle my shoe..."

"Bobbi, give me the shoes!"

"Three, four, knock on the door..."

"Bobbi, please give me the shoes!"

"Five, six, pick up sticks..."

"Bobbi, _GIVE ME THE SHOES!_"

"_NO!_"


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Steve gave up trying to untie the bonds that bound his hands. Britt looked over to him and arched an eyebrow as if to say "I told you so". They had been sitting, bound and gagged, in the small, dark room for an hour or maybe more. Britt had quickly found that her bonds were too tight to even hope of trying to undo, but she had watched Steve carry on trying whenever their captors were not in the room.

As yet, they had been told nothing of why they had been taken. Boys and girls of all ages came in and out of the room, carrying various boxes and piling them up against three of the four walls. This had gone on quite frequently to begin with, then the almost incessant train of people began to dwindle until there was only one or two kids wandering through every ten minutes or so. The increasing rarity of intrusion had given Steve more time to work at his bonds, but hadn't helped him undo them.

Eventually, after another half hour or so of sitting in silence, the door opened to reveal a tall young man. He looked a little older than Steve but, in the dim light, Britt couldn't be sure. He walked forward to stand between them, where both Britt and Steve could see him at least semi-clearly. Scrutinising each of them in turn, he turned to two younger men in the doorway and signalled to them to come forward. The two guards stepped up and undid the bonds that held Steve and Britt to the chairs. Fastening another cord around each of their tied wrists, to act as a leash, they pushed their charges ahead of them into an equally dim corridor.

As first Steve then Britt made their way down the corridor they passed one or two guards at certain doorways and one or two kids hurrying past with more boxes. Eventually they came to some stairs and were herded up them into a comparatively bright room. Britt wasn't sure where they were, it certainly wasn't anywhere she was familiar with, and she looked over to Steve. He caught her questioning glance and shrugged his shoulders: he didn't recognise his surroundings either.

The room around them had been stripped bare of whatever merchandise it had once held, but the large display window, with its shutters down, obscuring the view, betrayed it as a store of some form. There was an L-shaped counter cutting off one corner of the room, two tall, mirrored wall panels on either side of the room facing their partners, a raised platform where the window display once stood and, on the platform, a long table. Behind the table sat a tall young woman with a tall young man, similar in looks to the woman and identical to the young man who had brought them from the store-room, sitting on her right hand side. With the two guards remaining by their charges sides, as well as a number of other onlookers in the room, ready to prevent escape should an attempt occur, the tall young man that had fetched them stepped up onto the platform and took his seat on the young woman's left side.

All three looked remarkably similar with incredibly pale skin, white-blonde hair and ice-blue eyes. The woman's hair was so long that it disappeared under the table. It was straight, with part of it bound into a long braid encircling her forehead. The two young men, on the other hand, who were about a year or two younger than the woman, had short, spiked hair.

"My name is Sophia," said the young woman presently, "I, with my brothers here, lead this tribe. This is Jake," she indicated the young man on her right, "and his twin, Keir, whom you've already met."

Britt frowned at the formality of the introduction, directed mainly at her, and glanced over to Steve, who was staring over at Sophia with an odd mixture of hatred and disgust.

"You may remove her gag," Sophia remarked, coolly, to the guard at Britt's side.

Without letting go of her leash, the guard slid a knife in between the cloth gag and Britt's cheek. As he quickly cut through the gag, the edge of the knife caught Britt's cheek and drew a little blood. She flinched at the sudden pain, but it wasn't enought to make her cry out.

"What do you want with us?" Britt blurted out the direct, if slightly clichéd, question as soon as she was able.

"Your tribe: they live in the Feathers Mall, is that correct?" Sophia asked, as if Britt hadn't said a word.

"Yes," Britt replied: there was no point denying it after all.

"There are many restaurants in that mall," Sophia continued, "which means that your tribe have plenty of food. We have no food. What we do have, however, is you. How much food do you suppose your tribe would be willing to part with for the life of one of their own?"

Britt was about to answer, but then hesitated, running over Sophia's words again in her head.

"What do you mean '_one_ of their own'?"

Sophia laughed.

"Well,"she replied, "we only have _one_ of theirs, don't we? Steve doesn't belong in _your_ tribe."

Britt flinched and cast a glance over at Steve. So he knew her, she thought.

"Oh yes," Sophia confirmed with a sly smile, "we know each other. Intimately!"

***********************

"So, how close are you to finishing?" Christy asked as the majority of the small group sat around a table in D'Arcy's, dunking chunks of bread into the tomato and basil soup Say had quickly prepared.

"We've still got two on the top floor to do," Say replied, "Once we'd finished with Mings, time was getting on so I thought I'd better get down here to make lunch. How about you?"

"Ask Cat, if you can get her attention," Christy replied nodding to where Anni and Cat sat huddled in conversation at the other end of the table, "I can't make head nor tail of it!"

"Would you rather I went up with her?" Dee asked from the other side of Say.

"No," Say said quickly, remembering the arguments over security from the day before, "you know how my inventory system works now, you'd better stay with me. Besides, Christly doesn't need to understand what's going on up there, she's just there in case Cat needs a hand with anything."

"Gee thanks!" Christy exclaimed.

Say kicked her under the table before continuing:

"Plus I'm sure they've got a system going up there too."

"Yeah, I guess we have," Christy affirmed, kicking Say back.

Dee glanced at them both and frowned a little, then shrugged and turned her attention back to her soup.

"I stopped off at the shoe store on the way down," Christy remarked after a brief silence, "Amy looks done in. Shouldn't we let her take a break?"

"It's not us who won't let her," Say replied, "she's the one refusing to let anyone else take Bobbi off her hands for a while! She needs a rest!"

"How long do you think Bobbi will be like this?"

"As long as she needs to be, I suppose. Who knows?"

"What if she doesn't get any better?"

"Then we hope and pray that she doesn't get any worse!"

***********************

"Oh come _on_, Kyle!" Gary yelled in frustration, "It's been half a day since he left, do you seriously expect me to believe you know nothing of where my AWOL nuisance of a little brother has disappeared to?"

"Honestly, Gary, I haven't a clue!" Kyle replied, despairingly, "All I know is that he left with that bird we found in the alley last night."

"And where was she from?"

"She wasn't _from_ anywhere," mused a tall, muscular youth who was leaning on the bar behind Gary, "She was going somewhere."

"Marc, that doesn't help unless you know _where_ she was going!" Gary sighed, half turning to look at the quiet young man.

"True," Marc replied, nodding, "But since she kept mumbling something about feathers when we brought her in, I'd _guess_ she was headed for the Feathers Mall," he smirked, condescendingly, "athough, it _is_ just a guess, mind you."

"Ha, ha!" Gary replied, torn between relief and anger, "Get your coat, we're going after him!"

***********************

"So it has to be one of those two," Anni whispered to Cat at the end of her report on Dee's behaviour, "If I had to put money on it, I'd guess it's the bridal one."

"Why?" Cat replied, conspiratorily.

"Well, for starters she seemed more edgy around the entrance to the bridal one and then, when we were in Mings, I was sure I heard a noise coming from through the wall and that could only be Berketex Brides."

"Okay, so what should we do? Go up ourselves and open it?"

"No," Anni shook her head, "If there is someone in there, someone whom Dee is hiding, then we must have Dee with us at least when we open the door."

"Why? Surely she would only try and stop us?"

"Not if we all agreed that the door had to be opened. And if the person she is hiding is hiding because she is afraid of us, do you not think it would merely terrify her to be found by two strangers with no friendly face in sight?"

"I suppose. But how do we convince Say and the others that we need to open the door?"

"We don't. Say has already said that the stores are not a priority when I offered to open them earlier, but once the other stores are open and the food inventory is complete, Say and Christy will want to do an inventory of what we have in the other stores so that we know what we have to trade with. When the time comes to do _that_ inventory, they will ask _us_ to open the doors and Dee cannot object without looking as though she is hiding something. Simple."

"But how long will that take? You've still got two of the restaurants on the top floor to do, then the rest of them down here!"

"So it might take a couple of days, what does that matter? In the meantime we just keep an eye on Dee and see if anyone else notices anything odd about her movements."

"But..."

Cat was suddenly cut off by loud banging and metallic rattling noises.

"Bobbi?" Anni wondered, turning to the door.

"No, it's coming from the main entrance," Christy answered as she hurried past, followed by Say and then Dee.

"It must be Britt," Cat decided, rising to follow them.

"On her own? Making so much noise?" Dee queried.

"She's right," Anni cut in, in warning, sing-song tones, before Cat could reply.

The five girls hurried up to the ground floor and down the slope to the main entrance. As they reached the doors they heard that it was, indeed, more than just one person. In fact, it sounded like half a dozen young men.

"What do we do now?" Say wondered out loud.

"Tell 'em to get lost?" Cat offered.

"Ask them what they want," Dee suggested; Cat caught Anni's glare and said nothing.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Christy shouted through the door.

"We want my brother!" came the reply.

"He's not here!" Christy yelled back.

"He came here this morning!" the voice replied.

"Nobody has passed through this door today," Say called.

"He must have! He was taking a girl to her tribe. A girl we rescued."

"What makes you think they came here?" Cat shouted, brusquely.

"She mentioned feathers. There ain't that many places round here that that could be!"

"What did this girl look like?" Anni called.

"Open the door and we'll tell you!"

"Fat chance, mate!" Cat shouted.

"Cat, what if it's Britt?" Say chided, gently.

"How many of you are there?" Dee called.

"What makes you think I'm not alone?" the voice called, before it was cut off by another voice.

"Shut up, Gary," the second voice was heard to say before shouting: "There are five of us."

"Marc!" Gary cried, indignantly.

"What? Do you think they're deaf or stupid?" Marc replied.

"We have the grill on the other side of the door," Dee observed, "They still wouldn't be able to barge their way in here."

"If we open the door, will you tell us what you know of the girl?" Say asked.

"Fine!" Gary replied.

Glancing at the others for confirmation, Say stepped forward to unlock the door. As the door swung open it revealed five young men standing on the far side of the grill. Two stood forward from the others: one was about Say's height with a square jaw, peircing green-brown eyes, a determined mouth and short brown hair gelled neatly into place; the other was slightly taller with dark, brown eyes, very short black hair, nice muscles and a distinctly Italian look about him. The three behind them included one shorter young man, with a round face, spiky black hair and startling green eyes, one average height young man with large, warm, brown eyes and short, dark brown hair falling down either side of his forehead, and one taller youth with short, curly, light brown hair, extremely dark, brown eyes and tanned skin.

"May we come in?" asked the Italian-looking youth, who, by voice, proved himself to be Marc.

The girls looked them over. The young men were not carrying any weapons and it hardly seemed likely that they had considered attacking the mall with only five pairs of bare fists.

"Okay," Christy nodded as Say stepped forward to unlock the grill.

As the five boys entered the mall, everyone's attention was drawn to the corridor into the mall, behind the girls, from where a loud screaming noise and the sound of running feet grew quickly closer. Bobbi's form soon became apparent, her hair flying out behind her and one sleeve of her top torn off at the shoulder. Amy was quick on her heels, but not quick enough.

"Stop her!" Amy shouted to the group at the open doorway.

As Bobbi careened past the girls, the sheer force and speed of her onslaught knocking Anni out of the way and into a wall, she suddely found herself lifted clear off the ground and kicking at air.

"And where are you off to, trouble?" Marc asked his catch.


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

The five youths now stood in the main body of the mall. The grill and doors had been locked behind them to prevent further escape attempts by Bobbi, who had been carried, kicking and screaming like a three year old throwing a tantrum, back into the mall by Marc. The half-crazed girl now lay cradled in Marc's arms, her screams having subsided into exhausted, resigned sobs.

"Come on," Amy sighed, her features drawn and haggard, "I'll take you to her room."

"I'd better come too," said the curly-haired youth, making his way past the others to walk beside Amy and Marc, "Has she been like this long?"

"Since her mother died a few days ago," Amy relied, "She was just quiet at first. Didn't talk. Didn't eat. Just sat and stared. Then she started babbling a bit. Then this. Why?"

"Will was studying psychiatry when the virus hit," Marc explained as they reached the shoe store, "One year in and he thinks he can cure the world!"

"Everyone's the world to someone," Will replied, then, looking around him at the room, he exclaimed: "Oh my word!"

Clothes, books, bags and other miscellaneous items were scattered all around the room, but any desk, shelf or stand that could be conceived as a pedestal had one or more pairs of shoes lovingly arranged atop it. Marc picked a way through the mess and gently laid Bobbi down on her makeshift bed. She was sleeping now. He brushed a few strands of hair out of her face. Even in sleep, her young face was a mask of pain and Marc winced as another tear found its way out of Bobbi's closed eyes. Will found his way into the midst of the room, following Amy as she automatically tidied things out of the way.

"Sorry about the mess," Amy mumbled.

"No worries," Will replied, his words betraying him as Australian, even if his accent was somewhat more clear cut and anglified, "You should get some rest."

"I'm fine," Amy replied, automatically, "It's easier to clear things up when she's not awake and trying to get in the way."

"All the same..."

"I'm fine!"

"Will," Marc called, bringing his friend's attention back to the sleeping Bobbi, "Do you think you can get through to her?"

"I can try," the Aussie replied, "but not now. Let her sleep while she can. It's amazing what sleep can do, sometimes."

He had directed the last of these remarks, rather pointedly, at Amy, but she ignored him and carried on tidying up. Will sighed and looked back to Marc, who shrugged and looked blank.

"Okay, at least let us help!" Will cried, as loudly as he dared, "We'll get it cleared up quicker. Then will you rest?"

"Someone has to stay with her," Amy answered, without turning round, "In case she wakes up."

"I can do that," Marc offered, "As soon as she wakes, I'll call you."

"I don't know. You might scare her when she wakes up. She's used to me being here."

"She'll be fine," Will assured her, piling up a few books on a shelf, "You need to rest. You'll be no use to her if you start cracking up too!"

Amy paused and nodded, wearily.

"I'll be in the Monsoon store," she sighed, "That's my room."

"We'll call you as soon as she starts to wake up," Will said, gently, as he folded a crumpled pair of camouflage trousers and put them on another shelf, "I promise."

Amy nodded again and picked her way out of the room. As soon as she reached the bed in her own room, she collapsed into an exhausted sleep.

***********************

"Well?" Say asked Cat as they stood a little way away from the others in D'Arcy's restaurant.

"She certainly sounds like Britt," Cat shrugged, "Running for her life and she still manages to pull a guy! I don't know how she does it!"

"Apart from that!"

"Apart from that: yes, she fits the description."

"Then something's happened to them. We should join forces with these guys to try and find them."

"You're kidding? We don't even know them!"

"We know they are looking for one of their own and we are looking for one of our own. Chances are the two will be found together. We don't have enough people here to mount a search and look after this place. Like it or not: we need their help!"

***********************

"You _know_ her?" Britt hissed at Steve once they had been returned, without their gags, to the dark store-room.

Steve winced and looked away.

"_Intimately?_" Britt's voice reached a quiet screech.

"I can explain..." Steve offered.

"You'd better!"

***********************

"We're willing to join forces with you until we find our friend and your brother," Say told the leader of the three remaining young men, who had turned out to be Gary, "but how do we know that, once we've found them, you won't turn against us?"

"My brother didn't have to escort your friend home," Gary replied, "the mere fact that he did so suggests to me that he has a particular interest in her. That being the case, it's better if our tribes are both friends and allies from here on."

"Better for _you_, maybe," Cat cut in, "What about what's better for us? We have everything we need here. Food. Shelter. Electricity. Security. What do you have that we might need?"

Gary smiled sardonically.

"This place might be secure, but it's hardly impenetrable! Even then, to survive in this new world you're going to need more than six girls and a madwoman to keep it that way. All you need is a tribe with the right equipment and enough manpower and you'll find yourselves out in the cold, if you're lucky, as soon as may be!"

"And just how could having "allies" like _you_ help us avoid that?" Cat asked in a sarcastic tone, "What would you do? Ride over on a white charger and rescue the helpless maidens trapped within?"

"You read too many books." Gary quipped, raising an eyebrow.

"Perhaps we should be more than allies," said a voice from the doorway.

"What do you mean?" Dee asked as Marc walked over to join them.

"Will is looking after your friend Bobbi just now," Marc carried on, ignoring Dee's question for the time being, "She's sleeping. We managed to persuade your other friend, Amy, to go for a rest. If I know Will, he'll want to stay and help look after his new patient. Personally, I wouldn't mind staying and helping him. It would take at least the three of us to look after her if she's going to be like this for long. What I suggest is that we all stay."

"I'm not leaving the Counting House!" Gary cried, indignantly, "My father worked hard to keep that place going!"

"Maybe he did, Gary, but it's hardly ideal for living in! It has some food supplies, but not a lot between us. Most of what food was there has gone off because it doesn't have any power either! There are hardly any rooms as such to use as bedrooms: just cupboards and a few offices. There's plenty alcohol, I'll grant you that, but that's only really any good for trading with: you can't live on it!"

"It's more easily defended than this place!"

"Actually, no it isn't. This mall may have huge shop windows and walls of glass in some places, but they're covered by metal shutters and grills: you'd have to get through them before you could break the glass to get in. The doors are thick and well set and they have grills on the outside too, both of which these girls have the keys for and can lock. The weakest spot is the plate-glass ceiling and that's thick enough and reinforced enough to keep it up there and support the weight of one or more people!"

"So what do you suggest? We just pack up and ship everyone down here?"

"Pretty much, assuming these girls would let us. There are only a few others on guard and the kids. If Kyle and Zane go back and get them and they all take what they can carry and bring it here, we could get everyone settled in and helping before the day is out. It would also give us more people to use in the search."

Gary looked away, sullenly. He knew there were no good arguments for staying at the Counting House. It wasn't a hotel, just a bar that served some hot food, most of which had defrosted and gone bad when the electricity failed.

"We'd have to discuss it," Christy cut in, "In private and with Amy."

"She's in her room," Marc replied, "I'll take you to her. These guys will stay down here. You can trust them. I want to get back to... to help Will."

"Sounds good," Christy said to the other girls.

"You're not gonna leave these three here alone!" Cat cried.

"What harm can they do?" Anni asked, pacifying her friend, "The stores are locked. They cannot leave and it is in their interests to do as we ask."

Outvoted, Cat followed the other four girls and Marc up to the ground floor and Amy's room. Amy was sleeping so soundly, the girls felt guilty about waking her, but this had to be done now and, as Christy had pointed out, all six of them had to make the decision together. Amy came round quickly and listened intently, if somewhat groggily, to Say's narration of events.

"I say we let them stay," Amy said, as soon as Say had finished speaking, "I trust Will and Marc: they were a great help getting Bobbi back in here and the room tidied. If they say we can trust the others, then I believe them. Plus, Marc's right: we can't run this place all on our own. Not for long. I have a full time job looking after Bobbi and even with the two of them helping it's only going to make it bareable, not easy."

"But the worst of the work will only be for the first few days. A week maybe," Cat complained, "After that, there isn't going to be half as much to do."

"We'll still need more people to help defend this place," Dee countered.

"She's right," Say, Anni and Christy said, together, before Cat could say anything.

"I still don't trust them!" Cat persisted, "Especially that guy Gary: he's too impulsive! He could be a liability!"

"He's no more impulsive than you are!" Say exclaimed, "And he's got a missing brother to worry about!"

"I have a missing friend to worry about. Although we've only got their word for it that she's missing! How do we know that they're not the one's who have taken Britt?"

"Because you're friend Gary is too worried right now to think straight enough to hide things," Christy replied, "And if you look at the whole picture, I hardly think it's likely that that is an act! From the way the other's treat him, he's obviously the leader of the group, yet he defers to his friend Marc, who seems to be acting as the voice of reason. If that was meant to be planned, wouldn't he keep his... his advisor, shall we say, with him all the time? And if he's like this all the time, do you think the other boys would treat him the way they do? They obviously respect him, which means that this is either really, really good acting, and, for that matter, that Bobbi is in on it, or that they are telling the truth."

"Why would Bobbi have to be in on it?" Dee asked.

"Well, the way that Marc and, what was his name, Will, reacted to Bobbi, and then stayed with her and used her as part of their reason for wanting to stay. That couldn't have been acted that well without knowing it was going to happen and, therefore, having Bobbi on their side. As we know that Bobbi is pretty much out of it, that means it could only be genuine."

"I don't know," Cat shrugged, "I think they could easily have just used that situation to their advantage. The main part of their reaction might be real enough, then they might have figured out that they could use it to their advantage."

"It's a chance we have to take, though," Amy said, still sounding tired, "None of us have any psychiatric training and Anni's the only one who's ever studied any psychology, and that was child psychology! If Will can help bring Bobbi back to her senses, and if they're right about Britt and can help us find her, surely it's worth the risk?"

"I agree," Anni replied, "Bobbi needs professional help and Will is the closest we are likely to get now. Britt is, according to your reckoning, due any time now and hasn't appeared yet. Maybe not cause for concern in itself, but it does mean that what the boys are saying ties in with what we expected her movements to be!"

"Me too," said Christy.

"And me," said Dee, adding, with a glance at Cat, "We do need the help."

"Then you're outvoted, Cat," Say shrugged, "Are you still against them joining us?"

Cat sighed, huffily.

"I guess not," she shrugged, "But don't expect me to welcome them with open arms!"

***********************

"I swear," Steve assured Britt, "that's all! She was Gary's girl, not mine! She just lived with us for a while. That's what she meant when she said 'intimately'! She hit on me once! Once! And I knocked her back. That's it!"

"What happened between her and Gary?" Britt asked, having just heard the full story of how Sophia had come to know and then 'hit on' Steve.

"Nothing. D'you think I'd tell him that? He worshipped the ground she walked on!"

"But they're not still together, right? So something must have happened"

"Well, that was the weird thing. Nothing, exactly, _happened_. We just got back to Gary's flat one day and she'd gone. Taken all her stuff and vanished. Not even a note. We, or at least I, haven't seen her since; and if Gary has, he hasn't told me. Until now."


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

When the girls, without Amy, who had gone back to sleep while she could, descended to the lower ground floor, or Courtyard as Say insisted it was called, they found the four young men sitting at the same table in D'Arcy's, waiting for them.

"Well?" Gary snapped, looking harassed and irritable.

Marc put a hand on Gary's shoulder, which immediately calmed the latter.

"We've decided that you can stay," Say told the four boys, "If Gary and Marc will stay here, Cat, Christy and Dee will go with Zane and Kyle to bring the rest of your tribe and possessions."

"Sounds reasonable," Marc nodded.

Gary remained silent, looking at his hands and the table they rested on, then looked up.

"You'll need this," he said, unfolding his hands to reveal a large key, "It's the key to the main office, Kyle will show you where it is; inside there's a safe. It's big, but not too big to carry between two. It's important. Most of the rest of my stuff, and Steve's, is still packed: we've always tended to live out of suitcases for weeks at a time before we ever get round to unpacking. It should just be a case of picking up our stuff, Will's and Marc's, the safe and everyone else. Zane and Kyle know where everyone will be."

"Good," Christy nodded, taking charge, "Then we'd better get ready to leave. The sooner we're gone, the sooner we're back and can start sorting out how to get Britt back. And your brother."

***********************

"D'you think they've forgotten we're here?" Britt whispered; she whispered for no other reason than that it always seems necessary to do so when one is tied up in a small, darkened room in a building which, at that particular time, appeared deserted.

"I doubt that very much," Steve replied, "More likely they've gone off raiding some place. Look at this stuff: it didn't all come from here. They must be stockpiling loads of things, from loads of different shops and stores."

"How long do you think they've been gone?"

"Dunno. Couple of hours maybe. They should be back soon, I suppose."

"How are the knots?"

"Knot budging!"

"Oh. Just as well I've got mine loose then."

"You what?"

"It's an old trick I learnt years ago," Britt shrugged, leaning down to undo her feet.

"I thought you'd given up trying to undo them."

"Well, I had," Britt shrugged again, this time standing up and walking over to Steve, "but when we got taken up to meet your brother's ex, they got loosened a bit so, once I'd done shouting at you for explanations, I thought I'd try again. It took a while, but I got there."

Steve rubbed his now untied wrists and waited while Britt finished undoing the rope around his ankles. When he was free, he stood up and helped Britt to her feet.

"Any ideas how we get out of here, then?" Britt asked.

"If I know Sophia, she won't have left the place wholly unguarded," Steve murmured, "We're best to look for a back way out, rather than through the front entrance."

***********************

Christy and Zane walked at the head of the small group, with Cat, Dee and Kyle following close behind. As they turned the corner to face the Counting House, Kyle stopped.

"Something's wrong," he said.

He was a quiet boy and this was the first thing he had said on their short journey, but the conviction with which he said it made all four of his companions stop and turn to look at him. He was the youngest of them, about fifteen, and the shortest. His black, spiky hair gothic clothing contrasted with his pale skin, making his almost black eyes stand out like coals upon the face of a snowman, if the snowman was also wearing a spiked collar, nose-stud and chains, and had black-painted fingernails!

"What is it?" Zane asked.

"I don't know," the younger boy replied, "it just doesn't look right."

"We'd best carry on and find out," Christy cut in, "We have to get there just the same, we'll just have to be a bit more cautious."

As the five continued on their way to the Counting House they found that something was indeed wrong: the doors were wide open and one was off its hinges. There was no sign of activity from within and, as Zane found when he cautiously peered round the side of the door before beckoning to the others to join him, it was too late. The entire place had been ransacked and was a mess. Of the small number of their tribe who had been left to guard the pub, there was no sign until Kyle led the way to the main office to collect the safe. Being large and heavy, the safe was still in place and it wasn't until Zane hefted it onto his shoulder that Dee announced that she had heard a noise.

"Where from?" Christy asked, looking around.

Dee pointed, indicating the general area of the noise and Christy and Kyle sped forwards. Hidden in a cupboard, there was a young girl of about thirteen. Her blonde hair was a mess and her jeans and top torn. She had a thin, lithe figure that had allowed her to fold herself up into the tiny recesses of the cupboard and, although she looked terrified when Christy opened the door, she collapsed into tears of relief when she saw first Kyle, then Zane.

"Ally?" Kyle said, tentatively, kneeling down by the young girl's side, "Alice, what happened here?"

"I don't know," she sobbed in reply, "There was this tribe, they just stormed in here and started fighting. They had baseball bats. I think one of them had a gun. I was scared. I hid."

"What happened to the others?"

"I don't know, it all happened too quickly."

"Guys?" Cat called from the door to the room, a sizeable pair of backpacks already on her back, "I think you should see this."

With Alice following behind Kyle, they trouped back into the main bar of the pub. Cat beckoned to Christy and Zane, who deposited the safe onto the bar before following Cat round the corner. Behind the bar lay the body of a young man. As Alice had thought, there had been a gun involved and the young man had taken a bullet in his head. He would have died instantly.

"Who was he?" Christy asked, quietly.

"Jase," Zane replied, "He was a friend of Will's from university. I didn't know him well. He had a little sister though: Marie. They were never far apart. She's not here."

As Zane spoke, he heard a muffled sob from below the body of Jase. Rolling the dead young man onto his side, they found a trapdoor, leading down to the cellar. Zane heaved at it and the door opened. A young girl looked up, blinking through her tears, into the light.

"He's dead isn't he," she sobbed, plaintively.

Zane reached down and grasped the young girl's hand, guiding her up, out of the cellar, and facing her away from the dead body.

"I heard you talking," the girl said, looking up at Zane with tears and dust staining her face, "My brother's dead isn't he."

Zane simply nodded and hugged the girl as her sobs increased once more.

"Marie?" Christy mouthed from behind the girl's back.

Zane nodded again and watched as Christy and Cat replaced the trapdoor and the body before covering as much of Marie's brother as possible with the few bar towels that lay to hand. Leading Marie back to where Kyle, Dee and Alice waited, Zane re-shouldered the safe and looked around.

"I checked everywhere I could, that you guys hadn't already checked," Cat said in answer to his unasked question, "I didn't find anyone else."

Gathering up their packs, the small, sombre group headed out of the Counting House and back to the Feathers Mall.

"What were they like, this tribe?" Dee asked Alice, who was walking beside her.

"I don't really remember, there were so many of them," the younger girl replied, "but I remember the girl with the gun. She stood out. I think she was their leader."

"What did she look like?"

"She was tall and thin," Alice gesticulated to emphasise her description, "and her hair was really pale. Almost white. And really long. And her skin was really pale too. And her eyes. I don't know who she was though."

"I do," muttered Zane.


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

"Down!" Steve hissed as he and Britt made their way along yet another dark corridor.

Britt dropped into a crouch beside him as a series of footsteps grew closer. It sounded like the whole tribe was back, but Britt almost gasped out loud when she saw Sophia and her brothers lead a troop of their fighters along the corridor, each pair shepherding a prisoner before them. One of them looked familiar. Beside her, Britt saw Steve freeze, his mouth open in a silent, wordless exclamation and his eyes fixed on the prisoners. Once they had passed down the corridor and their footsteps could no longer be heard, Britt stood up and waited for Steve to do the same, but he remained frozen, now staring at nothing.

"What's wrong?" Britt whispered.

"M-my tribe!" Steve stuttered, "They were my tribe!"

"What!"

"All of them were in my tribe. There were only a handful missing. Less than a dozen! Kyle, Jase, Marie, Alice, Zane, Will, Marc and... and Gary!"

"Ga..." realisation dawned on Britt, "Your brother?"

Steve nodded, rising to his feet.

"And the boy I recognised," Britt continued, "That was Joe, wasn't it?"

Again, Steve nodded, then he started walking down the corridor after Sophia.

"Whoa, there!" Britt cried, catching his shoulders, "Where ya goin'?"

"I have to know!"

"Know what?"

"Know why my brother wasn't there! He wouldn't just abandon his friends like that or the Counting House. If he's not a prisoner then he could be... He could be..."

"And if you go charging back there with only me for backup, you could be too! Regardless of whether the Ice Queen up there has her eye on you!"

"But..."

"No! We get out now, get back to the Feathers and get some decent help! I know my 'tribe' is smaller than yours, but we've got a whole mall full of ammunition in there and a gadget freak who's watched "Home Alone" far too many times! We're more good to them in there if we get out now and come back properly prepared! Remember, we know more about them than they do about us!"

"But what if he's..."

"Then any delay on our part isn't going to make much difference to him, but it will to them. Come on, let's go."

Steve followed Britt in silent acquiescence. There wasn't much more of the corridor, just a few more corners and then they could see the light of day framing a doorway. As close as they were to freedom, Steve still stopped and listened carefully before openeing the door and preceding Britt into the muddy, cobbled back-street. There was no-one there: they were out. As soon as the door closed behind them, they broke into a run and fled.

***********************

Christy and Cat opened the grill and the door of the mall with ease and hurried the others inside. With what they had just seen at the Counting House, spending a long time outside right now was not a good idea. Zane hurried up the slope, his shoulders bent under the weight of the safe, and was followed by Kyle and Dee, both carrying heavy packs, and the two young girls, Alice and Marie. Marie leaned heavily on her friend's arm. They were about the same age and already knew each other well. Finally, having locked up again, Christy and Cat followed.

When the much smaller than expected group reached D'Arcy's, Zane almost dropped the safe onto the bar and turned to collapse wearily into a chair. Gary and Marc were on their feet as soon as they saw the look on Marie's face. Say sent Anni off with the two new girls as their five rescuers rested before recounting their tale when Anni had returned. At the end of it, Gary turned to Zane and looked at him, expectantly.

"It was Sophia," Zane confirmed, nodding slowly.

"And Jase was the only one you found."

"Yeah, apart from the two girls."

"Right."

Gary looked away, blankly, and sat down again.

"Who is this Sophia?" Dee asked.

"My ex," Gary replied, still staring blankly ahead.

"Jeez, you have great taste in women!" Cat snapped, tactlessly.

"Yeah. Thanks. You think I don't know that already?" Gary shouted, turning his gaze on her, "I didn't know she was a psycho when I started dating her! I didn't even figure that one out until after she left. She just upped and disappeared one day and I've never seen her since! How was I supposed to know that she was gonna turn up and steamroll my tribe? I don't even know why she did it! Not yet. As far as I know, she doesn't have a grudge against me: I didn't reject her, she left me! The only other people she knew in that building were Steve, Zane and Marc!"

"Nobody's blaming you, Gary," Marc cut in, "Let's just concentrate on what we do know, for now."

"Could this Sophia have anything to do with Steve and Britt's disappearance?" Dee asked.

"I don't know," Gary sghed, resting his head in his hands, "I just don't know."

"We'll find them," Anni said, gently, "your brother and your tribe. Somehow."

The other girls nodded at this.

"I guess I'd better go make some lunch," Say sighed.

***********************

Amy sat by Bobbi's bed. She had managed to get some sleep, but not much, a few hours maybe, and now she was wide awake again. For once, she had nothing to do except sit and watch over her friend: the room was tidy, well, as tidy as two guys could make it, and Bobbi didn't seem to be thrashing around too much in her dreams.

"Don't you have anything else to do?" Will asked as he sat down on the side of the bed, "I saw your room: there's still a lot of work to be done there. Wouldn't you rather work on that. She'll be fine, you know: I'll keep an eye on her."

"No, it's okay, honest," Amy replied, smiling warmly at him, "The room can wait until Bobbi's better. I saw Cat and Christy, and Dee, get back with your friends and some new people a little while ago: why don't you go check in with them?"

"I did. Briefly. They only found two of the girls from our tribe: the place had been attacked while we were gone."

"What? But you were hardly gone for more than an hour before the five of them went back! How could that happen in such a short space of time?"

"Somebody watching the place? Bad luck? I don't know. Something must have happened to trigger it."

"Any sign of your leader's brother?"

"No," Will shook his head and looked down, frowning, "nor your friend."

"I'm glad you're staying," Amy reached out a hand to rest it on his knee and he looked up again.

"Me too," he smiled, covering her hand with his own, "me too."


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

Britt and Steve ran and didn't stop running until the shape of the ornate and deceptively strong metal peacock could be seen above them. Looking frantically around them, they hammered on the highest door with all their might, yelling to those within.

***********************

Amy was showing Will around the mall. They had eaten the lunch that Say had provided and had been reminded by Marc that Will was the only member of their growing tribe who had not yet picked out a room. Will had protested that both he _and_ Amy couldn't leave Bobbi alone, so Marc had offered to sit with her while they wandered round. He himself had chosen a room on the first floor, next to Anni's, and the other newcomers and members of his tribe had also picked out their places, Gary somewhat reluctantly and impatiently.

As it now stood, the mall was filling up with five rooms picked out on the ground floor, Marie taking the sweet-smelling Crabtree and Evelyn store next to Amy's own Monsoon store and Kyle opting for the Calvin Klein store on the corner diagonally opposite their only used entrance and three rooms along from the enigmatic Dee, and eight on the floor above. Not to be in any way out-done by the girls' leader, Say's, choice of abode, Gary had finally settled on the store right next door, which also commanded a good view of the entrance, as long as the lift wasn't in the way, and a quick route to the stairs. With Christy on her other side, this took up all the stores along that wall.

Zane had chosen the Hugo shop on that floor, in the corner opposite Christy's store, and Alice had picked the brightly coloured HL Kiffer shop just round the corner from Hugo and two along from Cat's Illuminati store. Alice's room, a kiddies clothes store, was separated from the front of the building by the Vidal Sassoon salon that ran in an L shape between HL Kiffer's and Illuminati, then all along the remainder of the mall's facade; because of this, Cat was the only one with a room looking out onto the street and it was from Cat's room that the shout was heard when the knocking began.

"It's Britt!" Cat yelled as she dropped down and bolted past a whispering Will and Amy towards the door, pausing only to turn and raise her eyebrows at their proximity and red faces and remark "what were you two up to?" before carrying on down the stairs without waiting for a reply.

"Where the heck was she?" Will asked, bemused, "We looked into her room and she wasn't there!"

"Who knows!" Amy replied, rolling her eyes, "probably underneath something or hanging from the rafters fixing a light! She's hardly ever where you expect her to be!"

Turning back to the stairs they made their way down, finding a number of the other residents already ahead of them. Gary had been hot on Cat's heels as soon as he heard her shout and had been followed by Say, Christy and Anni at a slight distance. Now he was arguing with Cat.

"Here, let me do it!" Gary yelled.

"I can manage perfectly fine!" Cat yelled back.

"Then how come the door's still shut?"

"'Cause you're in the way! Move!"

Eventually the door opened and the two knockers, who had by now heard the argument and were trying to control their laughter, were admitted. After an anything-but-brief interlude, during which the two tribes gathered round their respective lost sheep and began herding them off to somewhere where they could get cleaned up and tell them the whole story from their point of view before picking out a room, the almost entire population of the mall recollected in D'Arcy's for a celebratory round of drinks and to hear the whole story all over again from a conjoined point of view. The afternoon wore on and it was decided that everyone should return to getting their rooms properly habitable, then they would regroup for dinner before a council of war that evening.

Cat and Anni went with Britt to help set up her new room. It was an old perfumery and it took them an hour just to get all the bottles of scent packed away safely. The lifts hummed with movement as numerous people ferried beds, chairs and tables up from the furniture store on the courtyard floor, next to D'Arcy's, not to mention bedding and suchlike from Linens Fine on its other side, just round the corner. As Cat worked on putting a table back together, instruction leaflet discarded somewhere off to one side, Britt and Anni started looking for clothes to go in Britt's newly constructed wardrobe.

"We thought it made more sense to put all the clothes and everything out here for now, until we got things sorted," Anni explained as the two girls thumbed through racks of clothes out on the mall walkway.

"Hmmm?" Britt dragged her attention away from the opposite balcony of the first floor, where Steve was looking down pulling faces at her.

"Oh, come on," Anni sighed, giggling and rolling her eyes, "You know I love you, darling, but you really can be a little spacey at times, usually when there is a guy involved. Now focus! What shall we take back before Cat demolishes the wardrobe again because she thinks she missed something!"

"Oh, um," Britt flicked through a little and picked out a couple more items, "these will do for now."

"Right."

"Oh, and this one."

"Okay."

"Ah, and this too."

Uh-huh..."

"Ooohhh, I love that top!"

"Britt..."

"Ooh, those hipsters are kewl!"

"Oh-kay, let's go!" Anni sighed, finally giving up and dragging Britt back to the room with possibly more stuff than would ever fit in her wardrobe!

***********************

"Steve?" Gary called, "Steve!"

"Huh? What?" Steve replied, spinning round from the balcony.

"I said quit lazing about and help me with this bed! This is your room we're sorting out here!"

"Oh, sorry."

"Well, come on then!"

"It's okay, you know."

"How is it possibly okay?"

"It wasn't your fault."

"Not my fault? Jase is dead, we've lost the Counting House and, apart from those in here, all our tribe have been caught by a madwoman who just happens to be my ex! How is it _not_ my fault?"

"You couldn't have known she would be like this, Gary: she just upped and left with no warning and for no apparent reason!"

"Maybe not, but I should have known she'd lost it. I shouldn't have left the Counting House with such a weak guard! I shouldn't have come running out here with all my best men to find my one brother, leaving a whole building full of kids vulnerable! I was their leader, Steve: that makes it my fault!"


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

"Come on, Marie," Alice urged, scrambling over a box of discarded kiddies shoes, one hand playing, nervously, with the small heart necklace round her throat, "we need to get both our rooms sorted out before tonight."

"What's the point?" Marie muttered, kneeling by the half-empty box she had been packing.

"You've got to keep going."

"Why? What does it matter if I do or if I don't? Mum and Dad are gone. Terra's gone. Now Jase is gone too! It's just me. What have I got left to keep going for?"

"You've got us," Alice put an arm round her friend, "I know we're not family, but none of us are, apart from Gary and Steve. We're all alone, but we're all together, if you see what I mean. We've no-one but each other, but we've still _got_ each other. Um, I think that makes sense. Sort of."

Marie smiled: she was used to her friend's rambles by now and sometimes even managed to follow them! The loss of her parents and older sister had hurt, but everyone had been sharing the same hurt and she still had Jase. Now Jase was gone and it was as though she had been cheated of something. She knew there were only a few kids in their tribe who had survived along with one or more of their family members, whether sibling or cousin, but when both she and Jase had joined the Counting House lot, it had been as a pair: where one went, the other would follow. They had made all their plans for suvival based on the two of them, together, not each on their own; now everything was different, again! She could either make new plans and keep going, or she could give up. She didn't know if she had the strength to keep going, but, if she gave up, then her brother would have died for nothing. He had died protecting her, so that she could go on surviving. What kind of sacrifice would that be if she just turned around and gave up?

"Yeah," she said, smiling up at Alice, "Let's get this stuff out of here and make this place a bit more like home."

***********************

Kyle was exploring the upper level of the terrace. Most malls either had their restaurants on the lowest floor or the highest; the Feathers had them on both. It was an oddly constructed building: a roughly tubular structure of four floors and a rooftop restaurant but without the usual sprawling corridors that most modern malls contained. On each floor one store, in the back left corner, jutted out from the rest of the building, preventing it forming a perfect square. On the courtyard floor, this was Bo Concept, the furniture store that was rapidly being emptied and that led out to a below-ground level courtyard with steps leading up to a stone statue and some more back streets. On the ground floor, it was Ted Baker, a clothes store with another exit to just above the steps before the statue. On the first, Oasis. On the terrace, Conran Zinc Bar and Grill. A couple of stores on the first floor and terrace jutted out to the same side at the front of the building too: Vidal Sasson on the first floor and Mings restaurant up above on the terrace. He was in Mings just now, looking out at the street below.

As Kyle cast his eyes around the eerily empty street, he thought he heard a noise and spun round. There was no-one there. He listened, staring at the empty patch of wall that separated Mings from Berketex Brides next door, from which the noise seemed to have come. There is was again. A faint shuffling, like someone shifting their weight with their back against the wall. He moved forward, listening closely and trying not to make any noise. As he drew near, he heard the whispering sounds of voices. He crouched down to the level they seemed to be coming from and pressed his ear to the wall.

"We have to tell them, Bethie," one voice said.

"Not yet, though," a quieter, more timid, voice replied, "not with all these new people going about. They've too much to do right now."

"That's just an excuse and you know it," said the first voice, "it'd be better to tell them now when they're busy setting up the rooms and don't have as much time to bother you. They have so much work to do that, once they'd agreed you could stay, they would just leave us to get on with setting up your own room. There's one next to me that would be perfect for you: it's a little jewelry store."

"I know the one. But what if they didn't let me stay?"

"They've just taken in the remains of a whole other tribe. They're not going to turn you out on your own, or even the pair of us, before you say it: they're not that kind of people. Besides, as far as I can tell, none of them have your skills and a healer is a coveted person in times like these. They may have a herbalist store, but they don't have a herbalist to go with it and with this many people in one place, and the battles it looks like we are going to have to fight, they are going to need one eventually."

"Fight? But," the smaller voice sounded suddenly panicked, "I can't fight! I-I can't! They would make me fight!"

"No, Beth, listen," the first voice replied soothingly, "only a fool would send a healer into battle. You are a very valuable and very special person. You know more about herbs and healing than anyone in this mall and very possibly in this entire city! You are far too valuable to send off into a fight!"

The two voices, Beth now being pacified, dropped to lower tones and Kyle could barely make them out. Rising carefully, he made his way to the doorway of Mings and waited. About half an hour later, the door of Berketex Brides slowly opened and the grill slid up. As she paused to lock the grill behind her, Kyle had ample opportunity to observe the unnamed girl before she turned and quickly made her way down the unmoving elevator. It was one of the girls he had gone back to the Counting House with. The one with the blonde and blue hair, who asked a lot of questions and had the room three stores along from his own. Dee, he thought her name was.

Once Dee was out of sight and Kyle was fairly sure she was well out of the way of the elevators, he made his own way down. He had cleared most of his room earlier and set up his bed and a small living area already and the rest he would sort out later once he decided what to do with it, so he made his way back down to the courtyard and then to D'Arcy's.

***********************

The smell of moussaka and cous cous wafted through the mall and Bobbi finally decided to wake up. She had slept right through the day and had missed all of its excitements, which may have been all to the good in her condition. She swung her dark brown eyes around the room and picked out the drowsing form of Marc sitting on a beanbag propped against the wall. Sitting up, she scrutinised the young man closely, but he did not wake up so she clambered out of bed and leant over him looking him straight in the face and leaning closer and closer until her nose touched his. He awoke with a start to see two beer-bottle brown eyes peering into his. Bobbi laughed a musical laugh and kissed him on the nose before darting away and out of his line of sight. By the time Marc had got his mind together and reached the door, she had disappeared entirely.


	19. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18 - Ready Or Not!**

The rooms were done. Well, mostly done. Everyone had a bed. All the inhabited shops' wares had been moved into corridors, other shops and the balconies. Even Anni's room had been put into some state of order, but only after she'd finished helping Britt. Everyone was peacefully sitting around a group of tables in D'Arcy's, eating dinner. The fact that the dinner, which had been ready for eating some two or three hours ago, was now stone cold, was the only discordant note in the scene. Well, not the _only_ discordant note.

A short distance away from Amy, Dee, Alice and Marie's table, Bobbi sat sulkily. Her hands were tied to the arms of her chair, her torso to the back of the chair, and her ankles to the chair's front legs. She'd stopped shouting only half an hour ago and had now submitted to having her meal fed to her by Amy. Every now and then, she would cast a particularly venomous look at her friend, who would then glance uncertainly over at Will at the next table.

"You've got to be cruel to be kind, Amy," he would say, "She has to eat and so do we."

Bobbi was the reason they were all sitting there, eating a hot dinner that had gone cold. Not only had she led them all a merry dance around the mall, but she had then decided that she would hide in the basement and have a play around with the generators while she was down there. Now there was no power. At least, there was none getting to the Courtyard or Terrace and they were the floors with the restaurants. Initially, there had been no power at all, but after two hours of fiddling around in the dark, with only a very weak torch for company, Cat had managed to get the power for two middle floors going again.

"I'll try again tomorrow," she sighed, wearily, "The boiler's down on this floor and I at least will be wanting a shower! I'll bet I'm not the only one either!"

"What about the alarms?" Dee asked from the next table, "Will they have power tonight?"

"Probably not," Cat replied, yawning, "which means we're going to have to have someone on guard all night. Two people preferably."

"We can split it into watches," Christy suggested, "Four hours each. I'll make a list and allocate people. You'll need a decent night's sleep if you're going to concentrate on the jennies tomorrow. Amy, Marc and Will will be taking turns watching Bobbi, so they're out. Say's got enough to do with all the cooking..."

"Yeah, and I wouldn't mind a hand with that!" Say cut it.

"...Britt and Steve need a decent night's sleep," Christy continued, "and Alice and Marie are too young."

"Hey!" Alice and Marie complained in unison.

"You are!" Christy replied, sternly, without looking up.

"That leaves me, you, Dee and the other three boys," Anni finished.

"Right, so we'll pair off: me and Zane, you and Gary and Dee and Kyle. With three pairs at four hour each, that would give us twelve hours, so why don't we take it down to three hours each and that gives a total watch of nine. Most folk will be up and about by then."

"What's that about watches?" Gary called from a table a short distance away, "Did I hear my name mentioned?"

Christy wandered over to their table to explain, without shouting, what the girls had decided. Gary was sitting at a table with Steve and Marc, looking defiant as usual. He had reluctantly agreed that, until they could hold a proper meeting Say would continue to be the leader of their motley crew and he would merely give advice, rather than bossing everyone around as he had been all day. The girls and the three remaining boys at Will's table heard a few low grumbles, some soothing words from Marc and an eventual agreement before Christy returned, smirking.

"Did his lordship not want to miss his beauty sleep?" Cat asked, yawning again.

"Something like that," Christy murmured, so quietly that only the girls around her could hear, "I think he just doesn't like being left out of the decision making process."

"Men!" Anni exclaimed, vehemently, and rolled her eyes.

***********************

"I don't know where they are!" Joe cried, wincing as the guard behind him twisted head back some more, "All I know is that they left to look for Steve. How should I know where they went?"

Sophia nodded to another guard kneeling on the floor behind Joe's chair. The guard moved to another of the imprisoned boy's fingers and Joe cried out as he felt it give way with a sudden, sickly, snap.

"Come come, Joe," Sophia walked closer, leaning over the boy so that her white blonde hair hung in two sheets around her face, blocking everything else from Joe's view, "Gary is your leader. You must have _some_ idea. We're running out of fingers now, so here's what I'll do: if you tell me where you think they might have gone, and if I believe you, I'll give you a ten second start out of that door. Nobody will chase after you, you have my word on that. And believe me, Joe: I never break my word."

Joe gritted his teeth against the pain in his hands. His mind was foggy with rising nausea but he had to take this chance to get out and get to them. His hands were no good now, but his legs were still all right and he was a fast runner.

"You'll let me go?" Joe asked slowly, "As soon as I tell you? No ropes, no constrictions, no broken legs, no chase for ten seconds, right?"

"Exactly that."

He paused to consider again. He had to take the chance.

"Okay," he said, "Deal."

"Good boy. Now where might they have gone?"

"There's a mall half way down Buchanan Street. The Feathers. We think that's where the girl Steve was with was headed. They would go there first, but I've no idea where they would go after that: it was our only lead."

"There. That was painless, now wasn't it," Sophia smiled and stood up straight before nodding to the two guards. "Untie him. Let him out the front door. Do not chase him. Now."

The guards stood up and did as they were told. Sophia began counting. Ten. Nine. Eight. She walked over to the desk and took out a small black object. Seven. Six. Five. She walked over to the door and stood before the guards watching Joe run down the street. Four. Three. Two. One. She raised the gun and fired. Blood spurted from Joe's head. He dropped and lay still.

"Coming," she murmured, then walked back into the store, followed by her guards. "Ready or not!"


	20. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

The mall was quiet. Of the three pairs, Dee and Kyle had taken the first watch, from 11pm to 2am, then Gary and Anni had taken over. Everyone else was asleep, even Cat, who had dosed herself on valerian to try and stop her waking during the night. At 5am, Anni and Gary had instructions to wake Zane and Christy. It was during the last three hours, around dawn, that Christy had deemed the most vulnerable: when the majority of the mall, even the night owls amongst them, would still be fast asleep and when there would be a degree of light to work by. Anyone trying to break in to the mall would need some light to work by, after all.

What she hadn't counted on was not a break-in, but an attack!

At about 2.30am, a small explosion echoed from the third front door - the one at the far end from the one the girls had opened to get into the mall - and Gary and Anni heard the grill go up and then heard the door shudder as something heavy pounded against it. They weren't the only ones to hear it and Dee and Kyle soon came running up, make-shift weapons in their hands.

"Wake the others!" Gary cried, reverting to his previous role as leader in the Counting House.

Anni and Kyle headed off to do so, Anni running round the rooms on the lower floor before heading up the stairs, Marie in tow, to join Kyle in rousing those on the upper floor.

"Help me wake Cat!" Anni called to Alice as she shook the young girl awake, "Then you and Marie stay up here!"

"We can fight too!" Marie shouted.

"Just do it!" Say shouted, hurrying past on her way down the stairs.

Christy, Zane and Steve were all down the stairs by the time Say joined the group. The door shuddered again and gave way a little.

"Where's Cat?" Christy asked.

"Anni and the younger girls are waking her," Say replied, "They might take a minute or two, but when she comes down don't get in her way."

Christy looked at Say with a confused look.

"Cat's a good enough fighter," Say explained, "But she was exhausted last night and she'll be dead tired now thanks to those sleeping pills - she'll go onto auto-pilot and attack anything that comes near her. I've seen her do it, it's scary!"

"I thought she'd just had one nights disturbed sleep. How come she's so tired?"

"One disturbed night here, who knows how many before we got here! I've only seen her like this a couple of times and in both cases she'd gone months without a decent nights sleep. Sometimes days without any at all! She just focuses in on one thing and switches to auto. That's the only way she can stop the fatigue catching up with her."

The door shuddered and gave some more. Anni and Cat joined the group. They were positioned round the corner, out of sight of the door, with Dee, Gary, Steve, Christy, Zane and Marc at the front of the group.

"Where's Bobbi?" Anni asked Amy and Will.

"Asleep," Will answered, "If the blast didn't wake her, there's a good chance the fighting won't either."

"Any idea who we're fighting?" Amy asked.

"Sophia!" Steve and Gary replied in unison, without turning round.

"The girl who..." Amy began.

"Don't say it!" Will cut in, "Just be ready."

"Why are we round here?" Cat asked, sleepily, "Shouldn't we meet them head on?"

"They just blasted their way though the grill," Gary replied, angrily, "Do you really want to be standing right in front of them if they decide to chuck a nice little home-made bomb up the corridor?"

"Point taken."

Dee unsheathed the knife in her hand.

"Is that a good idea?" Anni asked.

"You can bet your boots they'll have them!" Dee replied.

With a crash and a groan, the door gave way. Christy twirled the broom handle she was holding.

Silence.

Slowly the quiet sound of feet became audible as the intruders stole up the corridor. Christy held up her hand. Cat edged away from Anni's side, her feet apart and hands hanging a little away from her sides. Everyone held their breath. With the glint of moonlight on his knife the first intruder became visible round the corner of the wall and Christy brought her staff smacking down on the back of his neck, flooring him. Feet pounded up the corridor and the group spread out to intercept them.

The sun was nowhere near rising yet, but for once the stars shone through the glass roof, illuminating the scene. The best fighters had gravitated to the front of the group and Dee, Gary, Steve and Christy were doing well. Cat had moved off to one side, away from her comrades, and was fighting, as Say had described, automatically. Say and Anni fought side by side, Britt broke a chair over someone's head then joined Steve. Amy, Will and Marc tackled the stragglers that got round the corner and Kyle and Zane were in front of them somewhere.

As the fight continued, Anni felt a blow hit the back of her head and she collapsed. The last thing she saw, before passing out, was Alice and Marie charging forward, each brandishing a long iron pole from a clothes rail. Gradually, the attackers thinned and the defenders seemed to be getting the upper hand. Kyle was knocked out, a bone protruding from his lower leg, and Steve's nose was streaming blood. Gary screamed in pain as a knife passed to close to his face, opening a cut right down one side and across his eye.

Dee paused, seeing something, and charged for Cat. They collided with a loud bang and hit the floor, blood seeping from Dee's side. All eyes turned to the source of the bang: Sophia. Turning to face the others, her allies retreating behind her, she again fired the gun. This time, it was Amy who was dragged out of the way by Will, the bullet grazing her shoulder as it passed. Suddenly, a loud screaching was heard and Sophia's attention was drawn to a figure at the back of the group flying forwards at immense speed. Marc intercepted Bobbi, feeling the bullet embed itself in his shoulder as he did so and collapsing to the floor. Bobbi picked herself up as though she had never fallen and careened into Sophia, knocking her to the floor. The gun flew from the taller girl's hand and, as she expertly rolled out of the maddened Bobbi's grasp and stood up, she found Gary levelling the gun at her head, the right side of his own face a mass of blood.

"Oh, you're not going to use that, Gary," Sophia laughed, "you couldn't shoot me!"

"Give me one good reason why not!" Gary replied, through gritted teeth.

"Well, what would my son do without me for starters? You wouldn't want to deprive one of your own family of his mother, now would you?"

"Y-your son?" Gary's one remaining eye widened, "M-my family? What?"

"Oh, he's definitely your family, all right. I'm sorry, I rather lost track though," Sophia tilted her head to one side and smiled, "I'm not too sure if he's you son, or your nephew!"

Gary froze, too stunned to speak, and Sophia turned and ran the remaining distance to the door, joining her troops where they awaited her. Silence descended.

"S-son... Or nephew?" Gary turned to Steve, shaking with a mixture of shock, pain, blood loss and rage, "H-how could he be my nephew, Steve? I only have one brother and he wouldn't do that, would he?"

Steve looked to Britt. She backed away.

"I-I didn't," he cried, "I swear! She was just messing with your mind! Confusing you so she could get away!"

"Steve..." Gary's tones held a warning as the gun in his hand levelled in his brother's direction.

"I swear," the younger boy protested. "I never!"

"I don't... believe you," Gary gasped, but his strength was gone and he dropped to the floor.

Christy kicked the gun away from him and Will picked it up, neatly opening the chamber to reveal an empty barrel.

"No more bullets," he declared, tucking the gun into his belt, "she was out."

"Just as well!" Amy commented from his side.

"Let's get everyone cleaned up," Say said, quietly, helping Anni to her feet and looking around her.

"Cat! Dee!" Anni cried, pulling away from her friend to drop to her knees beside the two girls.

Cat came round, gradually, but Dee lay unconscious, a bullet hole draining the blood from her side. As Kyle and Marc were also brought round, Marc by Bobbi, they gathered together, each having their wounds dealt with by various, less wounded, persons.

"It won't stop bleeding," Christy exclaimed, pressing down on Dee's wound.

"I don't know what else to do!" Say shrugged, "They covered knife cuts in first aid, but not gunshots!"

"H-her friend," Kyle cut in, gritting his teeth as he spoke. "U-up in the bridal store. She's a healer. I heard them talking."

"I'll get my keys," Cat said, rising from where she was cleaning an unconscious Gary's wounds. "Maybe she can do something about his eye too."

"I'll come with you," Zane said, rising from Kyle's side.


	21. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

"Beth, it's okay," Cat edged towards where the young girl sat huddled in a corner looking absolutely terrified; her name had been one of the last things Kyle shouted after them as they had raced up the stairs. "We're friends of Dee's."

"Come on, Beth," Zane said, gently. "Dee needs your help, so do some of the others."

Beth huddled closer into the corner, trying to curl herself into an eve tighter ball, still keeping one eye on the advancing pair.

"It's okay, honey, we won't hurt you, we just need your help," Cat crouched down as if she were talking to a young animal or child. "There are a whole bunch of people downstairs who are badly hurt. We're doing all we can, but we need someone who knows what they're doing and Dee said you were a healer."

Zane flashed a glance over at the older girl, then looked back to Beth. The younger girl uncurled a little.

"What happened?" Beth whispered, timidly.

Cat adged a little closer.

"We were attacked. One of the people who attacked us had a gun and some people have been shot."

Beth flinched at the mention of a gun and Cat edged forward a bit further, holding out a hand.

"It's okay, honey, we got it off her and she's gone now. There were no more bullets left anyway."

"You hit?" Beth nodded at the blood on Cat's pyjamas.

Cat swallowed and decided it was time for the blow.

"Not me - Dee. She pushed me out of the way and got hit instead."

The colour drained from Beth's already pale face and her arms and legs went limp.

"Come on, honey, she needs your help."

With some effort, Beth reached forward and took Cat's hand. The older girl rose, pulling Beth to her feet and forward into her and Zane's arms. Supporting the shaking young girl, they made their way towards the stairs. As they reached the door of the store, Cat and Zane felt Beth inadvertently pull back.

"S-so big!" Beth whispered, a note of panic creeping into her voice. "S-sky!"

Cat and Zane glanced at each other, realising that they young girls fear was not simply of strangers, but of the outside in general. In one swift movement, Zane swept Beth up into his arms and cradled her head against his shoulder.

"It's okay, we're still in the mall," he said, hurrying towards the stairs as Cat made her way to the herbal store round the corner of the terrace for supplies. "It's just a glass ceiling, it's okay."

Cat worked quickly with the skeleton keys, opening the locked door of the herbal store in record time: they had already lost enough time getting Beth out of her corner. In the dim light afforded by the dawn, she could barely read the names on the shelves. One area stood out in a corner of the shop with a display set up on a bright, white stand. On the top of the stand she could just make out the words "Herbal First Aid" and she began gathering a variety of tubs, tubes and bottles into the gathered hem of her pyjama top before racing back out of the store and down the stairs.

When she reached the first floor, she could hear the sounds of Beth panicking with Anni, Zane and Will trying to calm her. As she turned the corner of the final static escalator, she saw why and nearly dropped her precious cargo. Beth was in tears, hiding her head in Zane's chest. Dee was lying on the floor, as she had been when Cat left, but with Will's pyjama shirt covering her. Christy and Britt were crying. Say was still working on Gary, with Steve beside her. Bobbi, looking saner than she had since she arrived, was peeling Marc's shirt off his wounded shoulder and Amy was cradling Kyle's head on her knees. Alice and Marie were nowhere to be seen. Regaining her senses, Cat hurried into the midst of the group and deposited the herbal concoctions on the floor, then went to Dee's side and knelt facing Christy across the blonde girl's body.

"I couldn't stop the bleeding," Christy sobbed, "I couldn't stop it."

_Spend all your time waiting_

_For that second chance  
For the break that will make it OK  
There's always some reason_

_To feel not good enough  
And it's hard at the end of the day_

"It should have been me," Cat's voice caught in her throat.

_I need some distraction _

_Oh beautiful release  
Memories seep from my veins  
Let me be empty_

_Oh and weightless and maybe  
I'll find some peace tonight  
_

"It shouldn't have been any of us," Christy replied, ruefully.

_In the arms of the Angel_

_Fly away from here  
From this dark, cold hotel room_

_And the endlessness that you fear _

_  
You are pulled from the wreckage_

_Of your silent reverie  
You're in the arms of the Angel_

_May you find some comfort here_

"I didn't see the gun."

_So tired of the straight line_

_And everywhere you turn  
There's vultures and thieves at your back  
The storm keeps on twisting_

_You keep on building the lies  
That you make up for all that you lack  
_

"You couldn't have, you were fighting at least two guys at once."

_It don't make no difference_

_Escaping one last time  
It's easier to believe  
In this sweet madness_

_Oh this glorious sadness  
That brings me to my knees  
_

"She saw it. That's why she's lying here. She saved my life. And now she's dead."

_In the arms of the Angel_

_Fly away from here  
From this dark, cold hotel room_

_And the endlessness that you fear_

_  
You are pulled from the wreckage_

_Of your silent reverie  
In the arms of the Angel_

_May you find some comfort here_

You're in the arms of the Angel

_May you find some comfort here_


	22. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

Two days passed, each one relatively peaceful. Dee's body was buried in the garden plots behind the mall, in sight of the statue and stairway down into the Bo Concept furniture store. Beth watched from the window of store two floors above Bo Concept, Kyle on one side of her, confined to the relative safety of the mall because of his leg, and Gary on the other, avoiding the company of his brother. The tiny, timid girl had moved into the jewellery shop next to the store her friend had occupied and two doors down from one of her two patients, Kyle. Gary had even submitted to sharing Kyle's room so that the young healer could watch over them both with greater ease.

Christy and Zane had replaced the grill on the damaged door with a sturdier one from one of the other jewellery stores and repaired the door with spare wood from various items around the mall.

"Just call us the A-Team!" Christy had said, "All we need are Mr T and Dirk Benedict!"

"He was the mad guy, right?" Zane asked, sitting down heavily on a stool in front of the bar at Darcy's as they reported back to Say.

"No, honey, that's you!" Christy replied, giving him a pat on the head as she walked past him to the other side of the bar and grabbed two bottles of orange juice from the fridge and removed the tops, passing one to Zane.

Cat disappeared to the basement for most of the first day. Anni went down with some food for her that lunchtime and didn't emerge for another few hours. Alice and Marie, who were helping Say in the kitchens, watched the expressions that passed between the two girls when Anni finally came up with the empty plate.

Britt decided that the best way to avoid Steve was to take over the hair salon on the first floor between Cat and Alice's rooms. She spent most of the first day just getting it and her own room sorted out. On the second day, when she had run out of things to rearrange in both rooms, she began testing the salon's products. Her first victim was Amy, who had been asked to go and try to persuade Britt to talk to Steve. After an hour or so, Amy returned to Bobbi, Marc and Will with multi-tonal purple hair that matched her favourite jeans and purple, pink and yellow striped nails, matching both jeans and top.

The two boys gaped as Amy shrugged and Bobbi dashed past her, eagerly shouting "Me too, me too!" as she raced up the stairs. She came back with her hair jet black with electric blue streaks, matching the zig-zag down the front of her dark blue top, and bundled up into two messy buns on either side of the top of her head. Her nails, shorter than Amy's, were dark blue with electric blue zig-zags and a gold-glitter coating. She had also had her make-up done, something that she had gone without since her arrival at the mall, and she wore a double layered zig-zag down her left cheek, in the two tones of blue, as well as dark and electric blue eyeshadow, dark brown lipstick that matched her eyes, and glittery, gold mascara.

"Wait 'til you see her!" Bobbi told the small group, excitedly.

By dinner time, most of the mall had seen the transformation of Bobbi and Amy and Marie and Alice were arguing over what they should get Britt to do to their appearance. Say went up with a tray for Britt and emerged two hours later with mahogany hair, highlighted and pulled up into an intricate design behind her head. Her lips matched her hair and red-brown classic-cut trousers and her nails were marbled shades of orange and mahogany to match her top.

Again, there were whispers over Britt's own transformation, and Anni eventually quelled the forthcoming arguments by changing the subject back to the guard rota before sending everyone off to bed and heading down to the basement to check on Cat.

By the third morning, the lights came back on in the basement and other two floors.

"Please tell me that means there's going to be coffee soon!" Cat said as she walked up behind Say as she was walking into D'Arcy's.

"You bet!" Say replied, "Any longer and I think I would be getting withdrawal symptoms myself. We should really open up Starbucks sometime."

"You like their stuff?"

"You don't?"

Cat shrugged as she pulled herself up onto a stool by the bar, leaning forward and settling her chin onto the heels of her hands.

"What happened to your hair?"

"Britt. She's avoiding Steve. You don't like it?"

"It suits you. Goes with the oufit."

"Just as well I stick with the same kind of colour scheme. You should see her though! You know purple's her favourite colour, right?"

"Yep," Cat rubbed her eyes absent-mindedly, then stopped, "Oh, she's not!"

"She has!"

"Oh boy!"

"Coffee," Say said as she placed the mug in front of Cat, "Milk?"

"It's okay, I'll get it," Cat replied, starting to get up.

"Don't be silly, I'm closest and you look ready to drop."

"I'm not going to be terribly good company for the next while," Cat murmured as Say placed the milk before her.

"I know, Anni explained."

"You'd best keep the others away from me for a while. Britt, Anni and now yourself know how I am, but I don't really want to have to explain it to the rest of them out there."

"Don't worry about it. Just try and make it to the end of today, then we'll see if Beth can do anything to make you sleep."

"The valerian should get me to sleep eventually, and hopefully keep me there until the morning. It'll still last for a few days though."

"It's going to be hard to keep them all away without telling them something."

"I'll hide. I know this mall better than most, especially the basement level."

"All the same..."

"I know. I'll stay in my room. I'll try and get in without anyone seeing. Anni knows where I'll be. Once I'm in there, you won't be able to see me without coming right into the room to look."

"Why don't you talk to Will?"

"Our resident psychiatrist? Why? We know what causes it."

"I guess..."

"Good coffee. I'd better get going before everyone else starts showing up."

"You don't want some breakfast?"

"I've got some fruit upstairs. I might show up for lunch. If I get hungry before then, I'll sneak down."

"Okay," Say acquiesced as Cat got to her feet and headed for the door, "If someone asks, what do I tell them?"

"The truth," Cat shrugged, "But only if they ask."

After Cat had disappeared up to her room, Say headed back into the kitchen and met Christy where she had been listening at the door.

"What's wrong with her?" Christy asked, quietly.

"She just gets a little moody when she hasn't been sleeping," Say shrugged.

"Don't we all?"

"Yeah, but not to the same extent. One minute she'll be laughing and joking, the next she'll be in tears or screaming with rage. You can't predict it and, what's worse, neither can she. She does her best to control it, but it still shows. She just needs to force herself back into a normal sleeping pattern."

"With coffee and sleeping pills?"

"It's the most effective way she and Anni have found. Otherwise she just diverts all her emotions into food and eats all the time, which isn't a brilliant idea when we've only got so much food. I know it seems a lot now, but there are a lot of us staying here now and this has got to last us until we can find some other food source. With winter coming up, that's hardly going to be easy!"

"So, since Bobbi returned to... well, relative sanity, we have Beth shutting herself into a couple of rooms 'cause she's scared of the sky, Britt shutting herself into a salon 'cause she ain't talking to Steve and now Cat shutting herself in her room 'cause she's a bad-tempered insomniac!"

"Something like that," Say shrugged, "though I wouldn't quite have put it in those words!"


	23. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

"Britt, open the door!" Steve yelled, "Come on, let me in, we need to talk!"

"This is a hair and beauty salon, Steve. We do makeovers, not conversations!"

"Fine, so I'll have a makeover, then!"

The door of the salon opened and an arm came out, grabbed Steve by the collar and pulled him into the room, the door closing behind him. Alice and Marie crept forward from Alice's room, next door, to listen at the salon door.

"Woah!" Steve was heard to say.

"Sit down," Britt ordered him.

The girls heard a chair being pulled out and a thud as Steve was shoved into it.

"I... I um..."

"You're not here to talk, remember!"

"I thought that's what people did in salons."

"That's just women."

"Right."

Silence ensued and the two younger girls crept closer.

"What are you going to do?" Steve asked.

"Don't you trust me?"

"Not right now, no."

"Then why are you here."

"You don't trust me."

"So?"

"You should trust me. I haven't lied to you."

"I thought I said we weren't going to talk."

Silence. The girls crept closer, concentrating on hearing what, if anything, was being said on the other side of the door.

"BOO!" Bobbi yelled, making Alice and Marie scream and jump three feet in the air.

Hearing footsteps heading for the salon door, the three girls dived for the cover of Alice's room, disappearing out of sight just as the salon door opened. The door closed and they heard the booted click of Britt's footsteps die away back into the salon.

"What have we here?" Bobbi sing-songed to the two younger girls, "Spying, were we?"

"No!" Marie cried.

"We were just..." Alice shrugged as she tried to think of a valid reason for having one ear practically glued to the salon door, "looking for something."

"Oh? What?" Bobbi asked.

"Cracks in the paintwork!" Marie blurted out.

"And did you find any?"

"Nope!"

"Then I won't see you there again, will I?"

The two younger girls glanced at each other.

"No," they replied sheepishly.

"Okey-dokey," Bobbi suddenly smiled and skipped out of the room and down the nearby escalator, leaving Alice and Marie standing, shell-shocked, with their backs to the wall.

"M-Maybe I should go and help Say in the kitchen!" Marie said, biting her lip nervously.

"Oh, no,no, no. You heard what the crazy girl said: that she wouldn't [i]_see_[/i] us again. She didn't exactly tell us not to, just not to let her catch us."

"So?"

"So, this time, sweetie, one of us listens and the other one watches!"

Marie bit her lip and raised an eyebrow at Alice.

"You take first watch," Alice told her, "Then if the door opens, it's me who gets in trouble."

Marie considered for a few moments more, then shrugged and followed Alice out to the walkway.

***********************

"What the...!" Cat frowned at the new padlock and chain on the front of the Whisky Shop.

"I sent Alice and Marie to open the store when you were upstairs with Beth," Anni explained from behind Cat, "They got it open and brought me a bottle of vodka for sterilising things, then we closed it up and put the new chain on it."

"I can't pick this padlock, you know!"

"I know," Anni nodded walking over to stand by her friend, "That's why I picked it. I have the key. I've hidden it somewhere safe."

"I'm not going to drink myself into oblivion. I don't do that."

"You haven't yet, no," Anni admitted, "But you've got pretty close once or twice; usually at parties admittedly, but I remember a time when parties had nothing to do with it."

"But I got through it. I mean, sure, I had you and Britt around back then, but not constantly. Now we're all living under the same roof. Besides, nothing compares to what I was going through then, what we all went through!"

"I know. And I know you know we're here, but I wouldn't be a good friend if I let you help yourself to the contents of this store. Firstly, we don't know how valuable they are going to be in this world, so you're drinking them, albeit a little at a time, doesn't seem like a great idea. Secondly, I _know_ you are going to go up there and take sleeping tablets tonight and, even if they are herbal ones, I can't see them mixing _that_ brilliantly with alcohol. Thirdly, even though the grief can't compare this time round, don't you dare tell me that the guilt doesn't, 'cause that is written all over your face. Add that to the fact that you haven't slept a wink over the past two days at least and probably haven't had a good night's sleep in weeks _and_ the fact that winter is closing in and somehow I really can see you going overboard as a possibility!"

Cat was silent for a long while. Eventually she shrugged her shoulders and turned round, leaning against the chained up grill of the Whisky Shop. She looked up at Anni and gave her a half smile.

"Saving me from myself?" Cat laughed, "I suppose you're right."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to sort out more of my stuff. I've still got bags to unpack and stuff to load up on the computer. I brought all my discs with me so I should be able to recreate my own computer on this one. If I run out of stuff, or if I hear anyone about outside, I'll hide in the den. I don't really want to run into anyone right now. They'll get a mouthful they don't deserve. Unless it's that Gary guy, of course. His lordship could do with being taken down a peg or two!"

"You know he's lost his right eye? Beth couldn't save it."

"I didn't, no. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. I'll try and keep the rest away from you."

Cat nodded and turned to head up the stairs then stopped.

"Wait a minute," she said, turning back to face Anni, "You said you sent Alice and Marie to open the Whisky Shop while I was upstairs getting Beth. I had my lockpicks with me: how did they open it?"

"Oh, um," Anni smiled, as if secretly amused, "it appears you're not the only one with a set of lockpicks!"

"Oh?" Cat frowned, "Who?"

"Gary! He's been showing Alice how to use them too: thought he could train her up to be a thief, she's so small and skinny!"

"He what? But she's just a kid!"

"In this world, she's more than middle aged already."


	24. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

The majority of the tribe had converged on D'Arcy's for lunch when Britt and Steve finally emerged from the salon on the first floor. Beth, carrying a tray for Kyle, ducked out of Britt's way as the older girl stormed into the restaurant. Heedless of the fact that this was hardly her normal custom, Britt strode directly to a chair beside Anni and the younger girls and sat down.

Silence descended, broken only by the slight choking noises being made by one or two of the boys who had not yet witnessed Britt's external transformation. She wore a close-fitting pair of jeans that were so dark a purple they were almost black, trimmed at the bottom in a lighter purple and fastened with a matching belt, and an equally tight-fitting, sleeveless, lilac, halter-neck top with fine green vines and small dark purple flowers weaving over it. Her black hair, though hanging in its usual pair of braids on either side of her head, now held dark purple and blue streaks and light, lilac lipstick and eyeshadow, a shade that matched her top, stood out against her dark skin. The change was so dramatic that it took the others present some time to realise that Steve had also entered the room.

The change in Steve, though slight, was also fairly obvious. He was still wearing his favoured charcoal cargoes and top, but his tawny brown hair had been partially bleached and dragged up into spikes.

"Hey there, Mr Peroxide!" Zane joked, "I thought you said you'd never dye your hair?"

Steve forced a grin.

"It wasn't exactly my idea," he replied, through gritted teeth.

As Steve took his place at Zane and Christy's table, being stolidly ignored by his brother at the larger table with Bobbi, Marc, Will and Amy, conversation resumed and Say returned from the kitchen with the extra food she had rushed off to get when Britt had made her entrance.

"Wow," Marie remarked, glancing from Steve to Britt, "How did you persuade him to let you dye his hair? He never lets anyone touch it normally!"

"I have my methods," Britt replied.

"He said 'anything but the hair', didn't he?" Anni asked without looking up from her plate.

Britt grinned at her friend and the two younger girls.

"Yup!"

***********************

Beth sat in Kyle's room, sorting out various articles she had retrieved from the few alternative remedy stores in the mall. Most things were creams, lotions or things for putting in a bath. Hardly the sort of thing that would be of any great use in a medical kit, especially as she was pretty sure they didn't have a bath anyway. There had been one store that dealt more with the raw materials for herbal remedies, which was useful, but that did limit her somewhat. It was enough for now, however, and that was the important thing: Kyle's leg seemed free from infection and was as well set as she, Marc and Zane could make it and Gary's eye... well, what remained of Gary's eye, was healing fairly well. In truth, they were lucky they had had the right herbs to prevent infections or even the small wound in Marc's shoulder could have proved fatal. That had been the easiest of the wounds to fix, once the bullet itself was extracted.

As she went over the wounds of the battle in her head, Beth found herself thinking of Dee again. She always came back to thinking about Dee, until something else distracted her. Now that Gary was free to wander round the mall, his wound only needing checked twice a day, there was less to distract her. Kyle, unable to get up and move around, often slept and Beth still didn't like going out into the atrium of the mall unless she had to. She knew it was still inside, but the sight of the sky above unnerved her and she had to force herself not to look up as she hurried to and from the various stores or restaurants.

"You okay?" Kyle asked, suddenly, jolting Beth out of her thoughts.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," the young healer replied, shyly.

"There was nothing you could have done, you know."

"But if I had got there sooner..."

"You still wouldn't have been able to do anything. It's not like we have a blood transfusion kit on hand."

"Maybe, but at least I might have got to say goodbye."

"She didn't come round at all. Not even for a second. It wouldn't have made any difference."

"You can't be sure."

"I'm as sure as I need to be."

"What if..."

"Don't... There's no point in 'what ifs'. You have to stop dwelling on what you did or didn't do - it's done, you can't change it now!"

"It still hurts!"

"I know. But it'll get easier if you let it. You have to stop feeling guilty though. It wasn't your fault."

***********************

Gary concentrated on his food, ignoring the small talk between the two budding couples he shared a table with and ignoring his brother at the table behind him. He had been stuck in Kyle's room with very little to do for two days and he had spent most of that time thinking. In his mind, Gary had gone over the entire time he, Steve and Sophia had spent in their flat before Sophia had disappeared.

He remembered how strange he had thought it that she hadn't even left a note or explanation of any kind. Maybe that was why. It would tie in with the dates. She hadn't said what age the child was, but if she was say a month or two along when she left, that would put it back to round about the time he had had to go away to a set of lectures in London. She had acted differently after he had come back. He thought she had just missed him or something, but guilt made more sense. Come to think of it, looking back, Steve had acted differently too. But then, he would have been guilty too, wouldn't he. And there must be something to feel guilty for, or else there wouldn't be [i]any[/i] possibility that the child was his nephew.

Finishing his meal, he got up and left the room without saying a word to anyone. He heard Marc calling after him, but ignored him and hastened to his room. Marc caught up with him as he was packing a large rucksack.

"Gary, what are you doing?" Marc demanded, laying a hand on the top of the rucksack to stop his friend packing anything else.

"What does it look like?" Gary retorted, angrily, shoving Marc's hand out of his way, "Do you really think I can stay here now? With _him_? My own brother!"

"Do you really believe he's the father of her child?"

"I don't know, I'll probably never know, but I can't be sure it's not him and that's just as bad!"

"Listen to yourself! You're taking the word of a madwoman who, just days ago, shot a round of bullets round our new home, killing one of the girls living here and wounding me!"

"That bullet wasn't meant for you!"

"Doesn't make any difference! Plus, in that same attack, which she led, you lost an eye and Kyle ended up with a bone sticking out of his leg! Then, going back further, I think we can be pretty sure it was her who attacked the Counting House - your father's pub - and killed Jase!"

"She said son or nephew. If there was no chance he was my nephew, if she and Steve didn't... why would she say that? Why? Don't you think it would have made more sense just to say 'son'?"

"I don't know! Maybe there is more to it than we know, but that doesn't mean you should blame Steve and go running off on your own in the huff! Where do you think you'll go anyway?"

"If there is any sort of innocent explanation, why hasn't he told me already? And I'm not going off in the huff! I just can't stand to be around him right now! And who cares where I go? It's not like I'm tied down at all. The Counting House is gone, my tribe is gone and now my brother is gone too!"

"You really think you'll survive out there alone?"

"I can look after myself, Marc!"

"Since when?"

"Get out of my way!"

Gary grabbed the bag and pushed past his friend. Storming down the stairs to where the others still sat in the restaurant, he walked straight up to Say, ignoring everyone else.

"I need you to open the door for me, please," he said, sharply.

"What? Why? Where are you going?" Say replied, standing up.

"I just... I have to go. Please."

"Okay, fine. If you're sure," she walked over and grabbed her keys from behind the bar, "Are you sure you'll be okay? That dressing will need changing, you know."

"I'll manage," Gary followed Say out of the restaurant, past Marc and up to the main door.

"You know where we are," Say said as she opened the door for him, "with any luck we'll still be here when you decide to come back."

"I know," Gary nodded before disappearing out of the door.

***********************

"This place is too small!" Jake cried, pounding his fist on the table, "and I'm sick of being stuck in here like a little kid!"

"We've only just got all the supplies here!" Kier whined, turning to face his twin, "Plus it's much easier to defend than some places!"

"Not now that you've let those two escape! If they know a back way out, they know a back way in!"

"Hey, that was as much your fault as mine!"

"Stop squabbling, the pair of you!" Sophia shouted, marching into the room, "This place is too small, not only for the supplies, but for the recruits also. It's been three days since the attack on Gary and his friends and I haven't spent them arguing over whether we should relocate or not: I've actually been busy choosing where to go. With Steve and his little girlfriend gone our position is now known and that makes it useless. I've sent scouts out to check out some of the more likely possibilities and I've made a decision. It might have a big chunk of it open at one end, but the rest of it more than makes up for that."

"What? Where?" Kier and Jake replied in unison.

"Central Station," Sophia said, triumphantly, spreading out a map of the formidable building on the table before them, "I had my scouts recover these blueprints of the building. It is fairly large and covers a large area, but most of it can be blocked off, permanently if necessary, and it has a considerable range of stores within it to keep our supplies going. Power may be a problem, but I have people working on that. Some of the recruits are already securing the place, others are ferrying supplies over there. We leave tonight."


	25. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

As Gary strode away, Say locked up again and turned to face Steve.

"You _let_ him _go_!" Steve yelled, petulantly.

"From what I've seen," Say replied, calmly, "the only person Gary ever listens to is Marc there and if he can't calm him down and persuade him to stay, then none of us can. I'm not going to keep people here by force!"

"He won't survive out there alone! No-one can! Not for long!"

"You never know. On his own, he may have more of a chance - more difficult to spot and all that, only himself to worry about. Or he may find another tribe. Either way, it's his decision."

"And we all know how great Gary's decisions are!"

"He made the decision to come here looking for you! If he hadn't, he and the four he brought with him might have been killed too in that raid."

"Or they might have been able to stop it. You don't know what Sophia was after. She told us it was food and supplies, but it might just have been Gary!"

"Yes, you're right, it might just have been Gary she wanted, but do you really think that would have stopped her killing everyone who tried to get in her way? She may be nuts, but she's not stupid! She aimed that gun at her biggest threats when she attacked us: Cat, because she's a good fighter; Amy because she'd just taken down one of Sophia's fighters on her own; and Bobbi because she had the guts to go straight for Sophia herself."

Steve looked at Say then turned and stormed off in a rage. Say made her way back to the restaurant. Some of the others had already left and Marie was busily tidying away used dishes. Alice was picking at her food and Anni was watching her with a worried look. Eventually the younger girl got up and hurried out of the room without a word.

"What's wrong with her?" Say asked Anni.

"A bit of a crush, I think. It'll pass in time."

"On Gary?" Say laughed slightly, "Whatever does she see in him?"

"You're asking the wrong person!" Anni replied laughing, "But I'm fairly sure that's what it is."

***********************

Sophia looked up at the immense building that housed Central Station. The spectacular architecture was an impressive mix of French gothic and Victorian styles. Her people had worked fast: the shops around the sides of the building, as well as the side entrances, were all securely shuttered and the main entrance was fairly well guarded.

She walked in, her brothers trailing behind her. The wide expanse of the railway station billowed out before them, its sides lined with the wood and glass facades of shops, coffee houses and bars. Above them stretched the rows of windows of the Central Station Hotel, its bedrooms looking out into the station itself as well as the street outside. That was where she would house many of her recruits, Sophia thought. They would train them in this compound before her and feed them in the various eateries. Within this building was space enough for a small village of people, all under her command of course, and that village would be just the start of her empire.

***********************

Gary looked around him, deciding which way to go. He headed up the hill, towards the main shopping precinct. It wasn't a good idea to stay out in the open for long, he thought, so he turned off half way up the hill into a side street. He knew the city well: knew where the hiding places were, knew where the smallest restaurants could be found that, probably, hadn't been raided yet. If he could find one of those, without an occupant, he could hide out for days. Walking quickly he made his way through the cold, empty, lifeless streets.

***********************

Britt sat in her room with Christy. She had left the restaurant not long after she had heard Steve finish shouting at Say.

"I just don't know what to do," she told the taller girl, playing with the end of one of her braids.

"Do you think he's telling the truth?" Christy asked.

"I want to. I don't know though. I hardly know him, really! How am I supposed to know if he's telling the truth!"

"I guess you just have to decide for yourself. Anyway, I know I've known him even less time than you have, but he didn't strike me as the kind of guy who would do that to his brother."

" I know, me neither, but..." Britt broke off, hearing her name being shouted, "What the...!"

The two girls hurried out to the balcony. On the mosaic floor below stood Steve, a bag sitting on the floor to one side and a set of portable speakers and CD player from the hi-fi shop on the top floor surrounding him. Steve himself had changed his clothes and had a leather jacket on, suggesting to Britt, along with the presence of the bag, that he might be leaving.

"What are you doing?" Britt cried, "You're going after him, aren't you!"

"I know you don't believe me," Steve shouted back, ignoring Britt's question, "And I don't have time for long speeches or saying everything I've already said a dozen times before, so I'm just going to do this and hope you listen to the words and understand."

"He's gonna sing!" Britt whispered, in horror, to Christy, "Is he gonna sing to me? He's not actually gonna sing, right?"

"Aw, sweetie, I think it's cute! James never sang to me, and anyway, if anyone looks silly, it's him, not you!"

A small crowd had gathered on the steps above the mosaic, outside D'Arcy's. There were a few heads looking over various balconies as well. Bobbi's black and blue hair bobbed into sight.

"Ooh! Karaoke!" was heard as she pushed though the gathering, only to be caught by Marc.

"Not for you, Trouble," he said, grabbing her round the middle.

As the remainder of the group looked on, Steve started the music playing and silence descended amongst the onlookers. With the leather jacket, bleached hair and blue jeans, he looked almost exactly like the guy who had made the song famous. It actually _was_ a miniature karaoke system he had hooked up, with Marc's help, and as he lifted the radio microphone, the original artist's voice was replaced, in somewhat shakier tones, by his own.

_So lately_

_Been wonderin'  
Who will be there to take my place  
When I'm gone_

_You'll need love  
To light the shadows on your face  
_

_If a great wave should fall  
It would fall upon us all  
And between the sand and stone  
Could you make it on your own_

If I could,

_Then I would_

_I'll go wherever you will go_

_Way up high_

_Or down low_

_I'll go wherever you will go_

And maybe

_I'll find out  
The way to make it back someday  
To watch you_

_To guide you  
Through the darkest of your days_

_  
If a great wave should fall  
It would fall upon us all  
Well then I hope there's someone out there  
Who can bring me back to you_

If I could

_Then I would  
I'll go wherever you will go  
Way up high_

_Or down low  
I'll go wherever you will go_

Runaway with my heart  
Runaway with my hope  
Runaway with my love  


"Isn't that kinda the wrong way round?" Britt whispered, "I mean, he's the one running away from me, right?"

"Only physically, sweetie. Metaphorically, you're the one who's been pushing him away. Not forgetting you locked yourself in a hair salon for a day or two and didn't come out until you'd bleached the poor boy's hair! Anyway, shush! I'm listening, even if you ain't!"

_I know now_

_Just quite how  
My life and love might still go on  
In your heart_

_And your mind  
I'll stay with you for all of time_

If I could

_Then I would  
I'll go wherever you will go  
Way up high_

_Or down low  
I'll go wherever you will go  
_

_If I could turn back time  
I'll go wherever you will go  
If I could make you mine  
I'll go wherever you will go_

As the song ended, Steve shouldered his bag and laid the microphone down on the speakers, walking out of the circle of the mosaic without another word. Britt watched as he reached the top of the stairs to the ground level at the corner diagonally opposite from her and, therefore, furthest from her. Say and Alice followed him up the stairs, but Alice only hugged him and whispered something to him then watched as Say walked down the corridor with him to the door.

Britt stood, shocked and staring, open-mouthed, at the spot where Steve had disappeared from view. Her emotions churned in whirlpools of confusion inside her and she couldn't move.

"You know," Christy suggested, "if you run, you could still catch him!"


	26. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

Britt looked blankly at Christy for a few seconds, then rushed down the side of the ground floor and round the corner. When she reached the far corner and turned to look down the walkway to the door, she stopped. Before her, she saw Steve, standing at the door with Say, saying goodbye. As he turned to leave, without looking back, Britt raced down the walkway and caught Say just as she closed the door.

"I have to go after him!" Britt cried as Say turned to face her.

"Britt, it's too dangerous!" Say replied.

"Then let me out now before he gets too far away!"

"But..."

"Just do it!"

Shrugging, Say reluctantly opened the mall doors one more time and Britt raced out into the street. Madly looking from side to side, she caught a glimpse of a black leather jacket walking uphill.

"STEVE!" Britt yelled.

The figure stopped. He turned round. Britt raced to his side.

"You can't go now!" she cried as she reached him.

"He's my brother: I can't very well leave him to wander the streets on his own!"

"But you don't know where he's gone!"

"I have a few ideas," Steve shrugged, "plus, I know my brother: I've lived with him long enough!"

"But what if you don't find him! What if you run into Sophia!"

"If I haven't found him after a week, I'll come back: I'll need to get stuff from the stores here anyway. I won't run into Sophia: I know she's out there now so I'll be careful."

"Because careful guys always walk right up the middle of the road!"

"Yeah, well, you had to be able to spot me didn't you?"

"You!" Britt shrieked in fury, pushing Steve's shoulder and turning to storm off back to the mall.

She had hardly gone more than a few paces before she felt a hand on her arm, pulling her around. As she spun to face him, Steve met her lips with his own and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. They stayed that way for what seemed an eternity, but to Britt was barely a moment.

"Come back to me," she whispered as they pulled apart.

"I will," Steve replied, kissing her once more then turning and walking away.

***********************

Gary moved the last piece of rubble out of the way. Finally, the door before him was clear. He was standing in front of the entrance to a small bar that had, in its time, served food as well as alcohol. It was not only hidden down one of the larger back streets, but was also at basement level, with a stone stairway leading down from the street above. Gary knew the place well, but not well enough to find a back entrance so he had spent the past hour carefully removing the junk that had been tossed down from the street, obscuring the doorway.

He had taken care not to make too much noise, and thus taken much longer than was strictly necessary, but now he found that the door before him was either locked or blocked on the inside too. He peered through the ruby tinted glass and saw a clear hallway inside. There was nothing for it but to either risk the noise of breaking the door down, or spend however many hours trying to find another way in, or another hideout. Glancing over his shoulder at the street above, Gary stepped back and rushed against the door, putting his full weight behind his shoulder. He bounced off the door and staggered back. The door remained unbroken.

"Ow!" Gary muttered, rubbing his shoulder.

"I'm not surprised," said a female voice behind him, "That door is reinforced with steel! You won't get through it that way."

Gary spun round, his good eye searching the street above him. Over to one side, his blind side when he was facing the door, stood a girl a few years younger than himself, pointing a crossbow at him. Her vivid purple hair blew out behind her and the pale, autumn daylight sparkled off a turquoise gem in her belly button that matched the turquoise trim on her black, one-shoulder top and wrist bands and the turquoise dragon and studs on her black, baggy trousers.

"What are you doing here?" the girl patiently asked Gary as he gaped up at her.

"I need somewhere to stay for a while," Gary replied, "I figured this place would be quiet and out of the way."

"And secure," the girl added, "as you've just found out. What's your name?"

"Gary."

"And what tribe are you from?"

"I don't have a tribe. Not any more."

"Then what tribe _were_ you from?"

"I had my own in the Counting House, but while I was out, they were attacked and most were captured or killed. Those who were with me, and the few left from the attack, joined the girls in the Feathers Mall."

"Rather careless for a leader to leave his tribe?"

"I was looking for my brother."

"And did you find him?"

"Yes."

"So what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be celebrating with your brother?"

"We had a fight. I left."

"And now you're here."

"Yes."

The girl watched him for a moment, thinking.

"Did your brother give you that?" she asked, indicating the nasty scar running through Gary's right eye.

"No, that was another fight."

"You seem to be good at getting into fights."

"And getting out of them."

"Hmm."

The girl raised her crossbow.

"Well, I guess you can stay for a while," she said, "if the other girls agree."

"Other girls?"

"Anne Marie and Di. The three of us live here. We're the Misfits."

"Ah," Gary nodded, "And you are?"

"Sarah. Now put that rubble back and follow me."


	27. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

Gary looked around him, groggily. It was his second morning in the Misfit's bar and he was starting to get used to the place. The bar had been owned by one of Anne Marie's relatives and the three girls had been neighbours before the virus. Di, the oldest girl of about 17, had taken charge of Gary from the first time the dressing on his eye had needed changing. Sarah, it appeared, was the small tribe's key hunter and scavenger. During her daily trips around the surrounding streets she had gathered numerous articles of use and a considerable amount of information. The crossbow she had aimed at Gary when they first met had come from an exhibition in one of Glasgow's many museums and wasn't the only weapon to have been purloined in such a fashion. Gary got up and headed through to the main area of the bar, where the girls congregated for breakfast.

"Sleep well?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah," mumbled Gary, "Thanks."

"You should have done: it's nearly midday!"

"Is it?" Gary looked at his watch in surprise, "Oh, so it is."

Sarah raised an eyebrow and Anne Marie giggled.

"How is your eye?" Di asked.

"Still blind, but there's no pain now; at least, no more than the usual ache."

"That is just the tissue healing. There was a lot of damage. You are lucky you did not have an infection."

"That would be down to our healer, Beth. She's a little weird, but she knows her stuff when it comes to herbs and healing."

"You still count yourself as part of their tribe, then," Sarah commented.

"What?" Gary asked, confused.

"You said 'our healer' when you spoke of Beth."

"Well, I guess I do. I had never meant to stay here so long: just one night, then move on to the next place. There are things I have to do, then, when they're done, I guess I planned to go back to the mall."

"What things, exactly?"

"In the fight that I got this wound in," Gary indicated his eye, "I found out something about my family and I need to find out if there's any truth in it."

"Why do you doubt your source?" Di asked.

"She's nuts," Gary shrugged, "She leads the tribe we were fighting and she knew she had lost the fight. She might have said it just to give her a chance of escape. Which it did, I must admit, and she took her chance and ran!"

The two older girls exchanged glances as Anne Marie looked on with a worried frown. Sarah whispered something to Di and Di replied, shrugging as she did so.

"This tribe you were fighting," Sarah began, turning back to Gary, "What do you know of them?"

"Not much. I know their leader and, like I say, she's a sandwich short of a picnic! Her name's Sophia. Insanely long hair, pale, pale blonde with the ends tipped in black. Likes guns. Shoots to kill and dresses the same. Dangerously accurate shot, but only if the target is standing still or moving directly towards or away from her. Not so good if they're weaving around or going sideways: she can't judge the distance they'll have moved by the time the bullet hits. She kidnapped my brother and one of the girls from the mall and they got away and got back to us, but I haven't had a chance to ask them where they were kept."

"That may be irrelevant now anyway," Di cut in, "Sarah was just telling me about the goings on in Central Station and the tribe leader there seems to fit your description."

"Central Station?" Gary asked, frowning at Sarah in confusion.

"They began moving in there a few days ago. I've been monitoring their progress. So far all the exits, and entrances for that matter, have been completely sealed with the exception of the main entrance. The main entrance is partially sealed up, with the central door heavily guarded. There are lookouts posted at various points, especially in the station hotel above the main entrance. The only entrance that they may not yet have sealed up is the railway lines themselves: they lead out of one huge exit point which would be very difficult to close off. I would assume, however, that closing that point was a work in progress and the lines themselves were heavily guarded. I haven't been able to get up to check, but that's what I would do with it if I were her. The woman you spoke of, Sophia, certainly matches the description of the woman I saw this morning, issuing orders. She had come to inspect some building work on the east side of the building. She had guards with her, but I still managed to get a good look and there really can't be too many people around with hair that long: it reached her ankles!"

"That sounds like her," Gary nodded, "Well, I'd better head for Central Station then. She must have decided to up sticks and move after Steve and Britt got away, in case they led us back to them. That would be why she attacked us also: a pre-emptive strike!"

"And how, exactly, do you propose to get into the station?" Sarah asked.

"Walk up to the front door and knock," Gary replied, much to the astonishment of the three girls, "It's me she wants: she'll let me in unharmed."

"That might get you in, but what makes you think she'll let you out again?"

"She probably won't, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. There's no point trying to second guess Sophia: she's crazy! She's a genius when it comes to some things, but she's crazy all the same."

***********************

Steve stood, his back pressed against the wall, watching the goings on across the street. He had been to the Counting House and several of Gary's favoured haunts from before the virus, but still hadn't found him. The next place he had tried was the store where he had Britt had been held by Sophia, but he had found it deserted. All of the many boxes he had seen were gone and there was absolutely no trace of Sophia's presence. He had found Joe too, or his corpse at least. The smell had been sickening, but he had wrapped the young man's body in one of the blankets he had brought from the mall and carried the cadaver to one of the few spots of greenery in the city centre. It had taken hours to dig the grave with the few tools he had to hand, but he had done so and had buried Joe's body without interruption. It was later that evening that he had first noticed the raiders.

They had appeared while Steve was setting up camp for the night in a small record store. He had heard the sound of breaking glass and had peered out of the curtained window of his store to see what was going on. About four darkly clothed young men were breaking in to one of the stores across the street. The first odd thing he noticed was that the store was a woman's clothing store. The second was that, as the four returned to the street, their bags of clothing in their hands, he saw a face he recognised. The leader of the small group was one of the guards he had seen when he and Britt had come face to face with Sophia and her brothers during their captivity. Leaving his things where they were, he had followed the small group at a distance until they reached the side entrance to Central Station. The entrance seemed to be completely boarded up but, after a short pause, he saw a door open and the four go inside. He had returned to his store for that night, but had moved, early the next morning to a store closer to the station and had spent all of that day watching what was going on.

As he stood now, watching guards at the front gate, he scanned the windows of the hotel above. The elaborate architecture of the station hotel could as easily conceal snipers as it could an intruder, but only from the uppermost levels to the roof itself. Getting up there would be almost impossible but, from what he had seen so far, one of very few options, other than walking straight up to the front door. As he went over his options in his mind, he looked back down at the main entrance, a movement catching his eye. Peering in disbelief he watched his brother walk straight up to the guards and seemingly demand entry. There was a pause while one guard ran off to check with his superiors and then returned with the order to let him through. Steve swore as he watched his brother disappear into the vast building.


	28. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27**

"Why aren't they back yet?" Britt moaned, "It's been over a week now!"

"They would have had a lot to work out even if Steve has found Gary by now," Cat replied, "Are you sure this works?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Britt pulled her friend's head back into position, "Stop fidgeting. They should be back by now. He said he'd come back in a week, whether he'd found him or not."

"Maybe he doesn't want to leave him. You know I'm really not sure about the colour."

"The colour's hardly any different from the one you had in last year, just a bit darker. You mean if Gary's hurt? Maybe he can't leave him!" Britt stopped dead in her attempt to cut Cat's hair, "Maybe he's hurt and Gary doesn't know! What if he's out there, bleeding to death, in agony!"

"It's only one day over the week, Britt," Cat replied, looking round, "Stop panicking."

"Sit still," Britt snapped, forcibly turned Cat's head back to face the front, "you know the more you move, the longer this will take."

Cat huffed and sat in relative silence for a while. Eventually, Britt spoke.

"We should go and look for them."

"What: just us or were you thinking of informing anyone else of your plans?" Cat asked, sarcastically.

"No, a group of us. You know what I mean. You, me, Say, Anni, Christy, Bobbi, Amy..."

"Point one: Say's going nowhere: she's our leader, if somewhat unofficially still; she's the oldest member of this 'tribe', which we still don't have a name for by the way; and she's the only one that can cook. That makes her far too valuable to risk losing. Point two: Bobbi's insane. Point three: Amy still won't let Bobbi out of her sight unless she knows she's safe with Marc or Will. Point four: Amy won't go anywhere without Will, these days. Point five: it might actually be handy to have Marc, since he's Gary's best friend and knows him better than any of us, out there with us!"

"That still leaves you and me, Anni, Christy and Marc."

"Or maybe you could try you, me, Marc, Zane and maybe, just maybe, Christy: I'm not sure if she would relish searching the city for dumb and dumber when there's still a chance she might bump into James instead. Plus, Anni's busy."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that," Britt paused for a minute, then a thought seemed to strike her, "Hey! Steve's not dumb!"

"I never said he was!" Cat replied, innocently.

"Just remember who has the scissors, girl!"

***********************

"So when did it start?" Anni asked the small girl huddled beside her.

"I don't know," Beth replied, "It sort of happened gradually, I guess. First, I just didn't like crowds, then that made me afraid of crowded places. As it went on, the crowded places just became places where people were, people I didn't know. Then that became the outside. It's scary out there. No walls. Walls keep you safe. Well, they're meant to keep you safe."

"But if you can't go outside, how did you get in here?"

"Through the sewers. There's a huge network, all across the city. Most openings are outside, but all the larger stores and most blocks of flats have some sort of entrance to them in their basements. That's how I got from my flat to here: from the basement of one building to another."

"But how did you know where you were going?" Kyle cut in from where he lay in his bed with his leg propped up in its splint, "Those tunnels must be like a maze."

"They are," Beth agreed, shyly, "but they are mapped. D... Dee found a map of them for me."

"She 'found' a map?" Anni queried.

"I think she stole it. It had a city council mark on it."

"Where is it now?"

"It's with my things. I'll get it."

The petite girl got up and walked over to the door of Kyle's room. Most of her things had been moved out of her patient's room into one of her own just two doors down. It was nearby, so that she didn't have to worry too much about the wide open space of the atrium, and the room between Kyle's and her own was in the process of being cleared out to make room for a small 'ward'. The room on the other side of Beth's had been Dee's. Any useful items from the other store and all of the contents of the herb store on the top floor had been moved into that room and were awaiting organisation in the new 'ward'. Beth's room was much more easily organised as she hadn't really had that many belongings to begin with.

When she reached the door and ducked inside, she let out a sigh of relief she hadn't realised she was holding. She hurried over to the set of drawers by her bed and pulled out the folded map before turning and hurrying back to Kyle's room.

"Here it is," she said, brandishing the map triumphantly at Anni, "Careful though, it's very big."

"Wow!" Anni gasped as she unfolded the map, "you could get just about anywhere in the city with this!"

***********************

"Do you think they're okay?" Amy asked, resting her head against Will's shoulder as they watched Bobbi and Marc playing "shoe chess" across the room.

"Who? Those two?" Will replied, his Australian accent drawling lazily.

"No, Gary and Steve."

"Oh, them. Probably. If neither of them is back in the next week, then I'd start worrying."

"Steve told Britt he'd be back in one week."

"Did he? Hmm. Well, I'd give them a couple more days yet anyway."

"You think?"

"Mmhmm," Will nodded, adjusting his arm around Amy, "If they're not back by then, Marc and I'll go look for them."

"And then you'll go missing too!"

"Nah, we're far too clever for that."

"Ha ha. Not funny. What if something's happened to them? That Sophia girl's still out there. She seemed to be more interested in them than in us. Maybe she's found what she was after."

"We don't know they were what she was after. Steve said they were going to use Britt as a bargaining chip to get supplies from us. Maybe that's what they want."

"Yes, she was going to use Britt! Not Steve! What if she wanted both?"

"True, but where would we start looking?" Will asked, sitting up a bit, "Steve told me, very vaguely, where the store was that they'd escaped from, but I'm not sure I know where he meant, even if they're still there. I don't know about you, but if someone had just escaped from me with knowledge of how to find my hide-out, I pack up and move out sharpish!"

"We can't just leave them out there, though!"

"If they're not back tomorrow, we'll go and see what we can find out. We'll try and find Sophia's place and see if she's still there."

"I'm coming with you."

"No, it's too dangerous."

"It would be stupid for just two of you to go, especially if there's a good chance you might run into Sophia!"

"Then we'll take some of the others. Zane's a good man to have nearby in a punch up and some of your girls seem good fighters. You have to stay here though: someone has to keep Bobbi out of trouble."

"But she's been better!"

"She's playing chess with shoes!"

"We don't have a chess set!"

"That doesn't make shoes the best alternative! Plus I'm pretty sure there must be a chess set in here somewhere!"

"Marc's playing too!"

"That doesn't count!"

"But!"

"Knee high boots do not make good knights just because they begin with the same two letters!"

"Kitten heels do make good queens though!"

"Yeah, good _drag_ queens!"


	29. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28**

It had been two weeks since Gary and Steve left. The girls had, with some considerable difficulty, managed to keep Britt indoors. Bobbi had beaten Marc in several games of shoes chess. Alice had successfully broken into the Whisky Shop. Say had started giving Marie cooking lessons. Kyle had managed to persuade Beth to spend some time in the atrium with him. Anni had finally finished sorting out her own room and Cat was starting to get used to her new look. It was time for a council of war.

"Well, we have to do something!" Britt cried, rather forcefully, at the group around the joined tables, "He said he'd come back after a week, whether he found him or not, and it's been two weeks now and he hasn't come back!"

"I agree," Amy cut in, "we can't just sit back and do nothing. What if they're in trouble?"

"But where would you look?" Cat asked, "And if they have got themselves in trouble with some other gang out there, how precisely do you expect us to be able to get them back. And that's just assuming they're both in the same place! Gary might be perfectly fine hiding out somewhere else entirely!"

"We need to go out and take a look anyway," Marc said, "see if we can find any trace of them or if anyone's seen them."

"And see if we can find out more about where this Sophia woman is based," Will added.

"What's she got to do with it?" Cat retorted, "She hasn't bothered us in weeks! Isn't there a saying somewhere that says 'let sleeping dogs lie'?"

"There's also one that says 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer'!" Will replied, "Whatever she was after when she attacked us, she didn't get it. I can think of two reasons why she wouldn't try again: either she's got what she wanted elsewhere, or she's planning a larger attack."

"Or maybe she's just realised that we're better fighters than she is?"

"Doubtful, especially with Sophia. If she's worried about our fighting skills at all, it just means she'll bring more bullets, more explosives and more fighters next time and, if possible, she'll attack when half of us aren't here. If we're going to send people out looking for Gary and Steve, we need to be reasonably sure that she isn't going to attack while we're gone. You saw what she did at the Counting House: there were far more people there than here, they just had poorer defences."

"Plus," Marc added, "if we're going by what Britt and Steve saw and heard while they were her prisoners, she's stockpiling for all she's worth, has a huge number of people at her beck and call, needs more food and does not seem averse to taking large numbers of prisoners. If I know Sophia, she won't have stayed put in that old shop either: she'll have been looking for somewhere larger and more comfortable and she's probably there by now, stockpiles, prisoners, minions and all."

"Where would she go?" Say asked.

Marc shrugged.

"She likes comfort, warmth, rich surroundings, that sort of thing, but she's not stupid and she'd be after somewhere she could easily defend. Somewhere it would be hard to get into unseen and, probably, harder to get out of if she didn't want you to. I can think of plenty places that would fit the bill, but wherever she went, she wouldn't be able to do it quickly or unseen, not even at night. It would take time and people. She might be able to move in secrecy if she only moved a few things every night, but she wouldn't be able to risk going that slowly. She'll have moved everything as quickly as possible without caring who sees. If she's got the place she wants and has as many people as we think, then she isn't going to worry about a few street strays or foragers seeing her move."

"Do you know any of these 'street strays'?"

"We would bump into them when we were out on foraging trips ourselves," Kyle answered, "a few of them would come back to the Counting House with us. Most would disappear somewhere."

"Would they recognise either of the boys if they saw them?"

"Maybe. Both of them took turns in going out with the foragers. There were set teams. I was usually on Steve's."

"Then we could try asking the Strays," Christy said, decidedly, "A group of us, say me, Kyle, no, Kyle's got a broken leg, Zane then and someone from Gary's foraging team, could scout out the area around here and try and get some information from any we meet."

"Gary's team are all gone," Marc said, shaking his head, "I'll go, I had a team of my own and some of them may know me. Besides, how many guys in this place do you think with be walking around on their own, missing an eye _already_?"

"If Sophia's been attacking all these 'tribes' the same way she did us, probably quite a few!"

"If they were on their own when she did, they wouldn't still be walking around!"

"Speaking of 'tribes'," Anni said suddenly, "we really should decide on a name for ourselves. I was rather hoping we could be Amazons when it was just us girls, but then everyone else arrived and it doesn't work so well with boys in the group."

"Oh, I read a book once..." Marie piped up.

"Just once?" Alice said casually from her side; Marie glared at her reproachfully.

"It was called 'The Swallows and the Amazons'. I just thought we could use that instead."

"So we'd be the Amazons and the boys would be the Swallows?" Alice's brow wrinkled.

"Ohhh.... Mmph!" Bobbi giggled, opening her mouth to say something before quickly having Amy's hand clamped over it.

"No-o," Amy chided, watching Bobbi through narrowed eyes.

"Well, we'll have to think of something," Say said, ignoring Bobbi and her attempts to bite Amy's hand, "I'll put a box on the bar and you can all add your ideas. We'll take a vote on the sanest suggestions. While I'm there I'll put another box up for nominations for leader. We'll vote on that too."

Say stood up and brushed her hands over her brown top, straightening it.

"Okay, I think that's settled," she sighed, "Christy, Zane and Marc: you're going to go see what you can find out nearby, but you're going to do it _after_ lunch. Come on, Marie: I'll need some help with this."

As Say disappeared into the kitchen of D'Arcy's, followed closely by Marie, the group around the table looked at each other and, slowly got up and dispersed.

"That wasn't too bad, was it?" Kyle asked Beth as they walked, or in Kyle's case, hobbled, over to the nearest lift, the one they had been using to transport beds and furniture upstairs.

Beth shrugged and stared at her feet. They reached the lift and Kyle stepped in.

"Come on, it's not that bad."

Beth shook her head vehemently and stepped back.

"I-I'll take the stairs," she whispered, glancing nervously up at the glass ceiling of the atrium high above.

Kyle nodded and let her go, watching, as the lift's glass doors closed, as she hurried up the ornate staircase nearby.

***********************

"We should take some things to trade too," Zane said as he, Christy and Marc discussed the best places to try first.

"You should take some way of keeping in touch!" Cat cut in, striding back into the room, with a box in her hands, "I found these up in the Hi-Fi store on the top floor. They're good for a three mile radius. I can't hear anyone on any of the other channels from here, so I've left them on the first frequency setting, channel 1. There are eight channels in all and half a dozen radios. If you each take one and we keep the other three here we should be able to stay in contact easily enough. I'll take one, I'll give one to Say and I'll give the other to Anni."

"What about Britt?" Christy asked, taking three of the radios and handing two to the boys, "Won't she want to be kept up to date?"

"Probably, but she can find out what's going on from Say, Anni or myself instead of buzzing you every five minutes. They've got new batteries in them, but I don't know how long they'll last when they're on all the time so here," Cat threw a pack of half a dozen batteries to Christy, "they take two each and they beep when they're getting low. There's also a little icon that comes up in the top corner, but it can be hard to see in bright light. Have fun."

So saying she deposited a radio behind the bar for Say and left the room, presumably to find Anni.


	30. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29**

"But I don't _want_ you to go!" Bobbi cried petulantly, stamping her foot and standing before Marc as he sat putting his boots on.

"Well, I have to," Marc said patiently, "It's important that I help them find Gary."

"I won't let you!" Bobbi decided.

"There's nothing you can do to stop me," Marc replied carelessly, "He's my best friend and I have the greatest chance of finding him, _and_ his brother."

"Oh _really_?" Bobbi smirked.

Marc finished tying his laces and looked up as Bobbi immediately took advantage of his position to sit herself down on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist and the back of the chair.

"If you go, you'll have to take _me_ with you," Bobbi whispered in his ear.

***********************

"But why can't I have one!" Britt whined, "It's my boyfriend they're out there looking for!"

"And that's precisely why you're not getting a radio," Say told her for the tenth time, "you'd keep checking in with them to see if they had found anything, or anyone."

"I wouldn't, I promise."

"You would and we all know it," Cat cut in.

Britt sighed and huffed, folding her arms across her chest and frowning at the two girls before her. It wasn't fair, it wasn't right. Steve was her boyfriend after all and she had every right to know what was going on in the search for him. It wasn't her fault, either, if she was a little nervous.

"Come on now," Anni said soothingly, placing a comforting arm around Britt's shoulders, "You know we will let you know as soon as we hear anything."

Britt shrugged and glared at her drink on the bar in front of her. She would have preferred something stronger, but all that she had been given was a choice of tea, coffee or juice, with an offer of hot chocolate thrown in by Anni: apparently her chocolate stall sold the best hot chocolate powder in Glasgow and they had two boxes of it in the stores.

***********************

"What do you mean 'gone'?" Sophia shrieked at the two guards before her, "How can they be 'gone'?"

"I am sorry, my lady, I do not know how they could have escaped," one of the guards said quickly, "They did not pass us: the door was never opened. The only other exit is a small, high window. They were on the top floor, my lady, if they went out that way, they would surely have fallen to their deaths but we found no bodies."

"Then it is obvious that they did not fall, but succeeded in climbing out of that window to the roof!" Sophia replied icily, "Get a team up on the roof looking for them! There are hardly that many places they could have gone from there!. I want a team on the ground too, searching the city. If they did manage to find somewhere to climb down, they could be anywhere. Find them and bring them back. Both of them. Alive, if you can."

The two guards hurried out, heads bowed. As soon as they had left the room, the muffled shouts of their orders could be heard echoing around the station. As the cries died away, Sophia turned to a young girl standing in a corner.

"Have my lunch brought to my suite in the hotel," she said snappishly, "and make sure they don't burn it."

Central station was proving to be a good choice for Sophia's base. The Station Hotel provided all the necessary comforts she and her son required, with enough room to house her brothers and her growing number of servants and guards. The various coffee houses, restaurants and bars around the sides of the station provided considerable quantities of food, although not nearly enough to support her army for long, and plenty of cooking facilities. The wide open space within the station itself, roofed over to protect it from the elements, provided a good training ground in which her two brothers were even now putting the newest recruits through their paces.

As Sophia made her way into the hotel and up to her room she glanced down into the station and watched the training going on below. There was much to be done, but all seemed to be going according to plan so far. The escape of her son's father and uncle had done little to upset them but it was annoying that she would have to waste some of her troops time on bringing them back, time that could have been spent foraging or recruiting and training others. It was a fly in the ointment, but nothing more. Soon, she would have an army large enough and strong enough to take over the city and bring it to order.

***********************

"Keep still!" Christy hissed as Bobbi fidgeted noisily behind her.

"She wouldn't let me go," Marc whispered apologetically, "Sorry."

"So you keep saying," Christy muttered through gritted teeth, "Just try and keep her quiet!"

Marc sighed and turned to Bobbi, whose blue and black hair bounced as she met his gaze and grinned at him.

"Listen, Trouble, you really need to keep still now, okay?" Marc said quietly.

Bobbi nodded her head and grinned, still fidgeting.

"No, really, really still," Marc persisted.

Bobbi hugged her knees to her chest and stopped fidgeting.

"Good," Marc sighed, relieved, "That's my girl."

Bobbi starting humming.

Marc groaned.

"I'm warning you," Christy hissed, "If you can't keep her quiet, Zane and I are going on without you!"


	31. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30**

"Where do you suppose she is?"

"How should I know? She's not here anyway."

"But how do you know, if you don't know where she is?"

"Look around! Do you see her here?"

"She could just have popped out for a minute!"

"Yeah, right! We haven't seen her in ages!"

"All the more reason to expect her back any minute!"

"Hey, look at this!"

"What is it?"

"I don't know. Looks like it used to be a toy car. You know, one of the ones with the remotes?"

"Does it work?"

"How should I know? It doesn't look like it should."

"It does exactly what it was designed to do."

Marie and Alice yelped and turned round, Alice almost dropping the machine in her hands. Cat was standing, leaning over the counter of the store.

"Wh-what?" Alice stuttered, aware of Marie cowering a little behind her, "But you weren't here! You would have had to go past us to get there! You weren't here!"

"Appearances can be deceptive, kid," Cat replied, "Now scram. You can leave that here."

Alice turned, carefully replaced the ex-toy car on the old display stand, then bolted from the room, quickly followed by Marie.

"Did you have to scare them like that?" Anni asked as Cat turned and sunk back down into the den created from the old serving counter.

"You said his lordship was training the blonde kid up as a thief. I'd rather they were more worried about being caught in here than practising what he taught her. Besides, those two are always up to something: snooping around, listening at doors. Right Britt?"

Britt pulled a face and said nothing.

"Because you would never go snooping around, would you sweetie?" Anni replied sarcastically, "And you've never been caught listening at doors."

"Yeah, you're right: I've never been caught! And I don't snoop out of idle curiosity; I always have a reason."

"Not necessarily a _good_ reason..."

"Hey!"

"Maybe you should take over where Gary left off. Start training her up yourself."

"I'm not teaching a kid like that how to cause trouble! She needs no help from me!"

"Of course if you'd rather Gary continued _his_ version..."

"He's not here."

"He'll be back," Britt cut in, sullenly "They both will."

"I've got enough on just trying to fix all the electrics in this place. The only reason we've got enough power is because I've shut down half the mall. I'm going to have to finish the work on the roof before winter sets in or we won't have enough energy to keep the freezers cold in winter, never mind getting the rooms warm!"

"I thought we had enough energy to run the freezers?" Britt sniffed.

"We do now, but we're running on solar energy and as the days get shorter, there's less of that around. Right now, we're running at almost full capacity. Hooking up the remaining panels is turning out to be much tougher than I'd expected. Plus I could do with an extra pair of hands and the only person who did any sort of electrical stuff at uni is Zane: he did engineering."

"What have you told Say?" Anni asked.

"Not to leave the freezer doors open too long, or open them too often."

***********************

"How the blazes did I let you talk me into this!" Gary hissed at his brother.

"Another fine mess, Ollie?" Steve smirked as he peered out around the edge of the chimney stack they were hiding behind.

"I'm on top of a roof six floors up, in a howling gale, with only one eye and a brother who must be nuts to guide me!"

"You were free to stay in that attic if you wanted."

"Huh! As if!"

"Did you hear that?"

"What?"

"I thought I heard something."

"Obviously! What?"

"A screech, a laugh, something like that."

"So? In this wind it could be anything!"

"True."

"What is it?"

"Nothing."

"What?"

"You don't think..."

"What?"

"The mad one."

"What mad one? Who?"

"The one Marc was looking after."

"Oh, Bobbi. What about her?"

"Well, they wouldn't let her out... Would they?"


	32. Chapter 31

**Chapter 31**

"You are going to get us both killed!"

"This from the guy who walked up to _her_ front door and told the guards who he was?"

"I didn't think I had anywhere else to go!"

"You should have trusted me!"

"I had to know if there really was a baby."

"What did you think you would do then? Say: 'Oh, thanks, I'll just take the kid now' and walk back out again?"

"I'd have thought of something."

"Sure you would."

"You know, pretty soon, we're going to run out of roof!"

"There's always a way down from these buildings."

"Let me know when you find it!"

"Hey, you're not completely incapable of looking for it yourself!"

"No, but one of us has to keep an eye out for whoever might be out looking for us and since I've only got one to spare...!"

"You can't blame that one on me!"

"Really? From where I'm standing, there's a fairly good chance it was _you_ Sophie was after when she attacked, not me, and _you_ are probably the reason she knew where to look!"

"Hardly. She could have attacked the Feathers for any number of reasons. She was after its food supply: she told me that much when she had Britt and I hostage. If she knew that then, then she also knew where to look for us later. She still went to the Counting House first, though. That means she went looking for _you_, not me!"

"Does it matter?"

The two brothers looked round as a female voice cut into their argument. Crouched down in the shadow of a chimney stack, swathed in a three-quarter length black coat, was a young woman Gary recognised.

"Di!" Gary exclaimed in surprise, "What are you doing here?"

"Keeping an eye on things. Mainly you," the girl replied, "The way down is not so easy to find. Follow me: I will take you."

"You know her?" Steve whispered to his brother as they followed Di across the roof.

"She's a Misfit," Gary replied, "I stayed with her and her tribe just after I left the Feathers. There are only three of them. The other two are called Sarah and Anne Marie."

"You were staying with three young women and you still went to find Sophie?"

Gary glared at his brother with his one good eye.

"Come on," said Di as they reached a large, slate covered chimney stack, "This is it."

Neither brother saw quite what Di did to open the door, but suddenly a crack appeared at the edge of the chimney stack and one tiled side swung open to reveal an entrance to the building below. Di went through first, disappearing into darkness for a moment before the light of a torch flicked on and illuminated the inside of the chimney stack.

Gary went through next, following the light of Di's torch, then Steve. As the younger brother pulled the rest of himself through into the now crowded stack, Di reached past him and pulled the door shut. She swung the beam of the torch round and found a trap door, which Gary was now standing on. Moving the elder brother to one side, the young woman pulled the trapdoor up to reveal a steep, spiralling flight of steps.

"Here," she said, handing Gary the torch, "You go first, then him. Stop at the bottom and wait for me."

The two brothers did as they were told, hearing the trapdoor above them slam shut and a bolt shoot across as Di locked it behind them. By the time they reached the bottom of the spiral staircase, Di had caught up with them.

"That should stop anyone following us even if they do find the doorway," she said, taking the torch from Gary and moving in front of the group once more.

In the light of the torch, the three now seemed to be standing before a normal door. When Di opened it, however, and the boys followed her out, they saw that the outer side of the door fitted smoothly into the wall and was painted as part of a large, Italian style fresco.

"This is just the restaurant area," Di said quietly, "the rest of the store is out this way. We need to get down to the basement level: that's about five floors."

"I'm guessing the lifts won't work here?" Steve asked hopefully.

"You guess correctly," Di replied, switching off her torch as pale sunlight flooded through the large restaurant windows, "Besides, even if they were, I would still advise you to take the stairs: they are quieter and attract less attention."

"This place is empty, isn't it?"

"One can never be sure. Follow me. Quietly."

Obediently, Gary and Steve followed the dark-skinned, dark-clad girl out into the main area of the department store they were in. Instead of leading them to the main, central staircases, Di ushered them into the darker area of the service stairs. Daylight shone through narrow, infrequent windows, breaking the gloom at various intervals but failing to illuminate much. On the darker flights, Di switched her torch back on, but only if absolutely necessary to ensure the brothers did not stumble on their way down.

After a depressingly long descent in shadow, the three emerged into the utter darkness of the basement. After listening in silence for a few moments, Di flicked her torch on again and led the boys across the wide, storage strewn room. At the opposite side from the stairs, there was another faceless, forbidding doorway. Di led them through it and they descended into a cold, claustrophobic, concrete lined room with a round metal hatch in the floor.

"Through here," said Di, "It's the service hatch for the sewers. Go straight down and wait for me at the bottom of the ladder. Do not wander off: I will not be able to lead you out if you get lost."

Gary followed orders immediately, his brother followed him moments later, albeit with a wrinkled nose. After another minute, Di landed in the watery conduit beside them and shone her torch back and forth along each of the available passageways.

"From here we go north, then west, then north again," Di explained, pulling a compass out of her coat pocket and examining it before looking up and pointing to her right, "This way. Keep close."

The brothers followed the light of Di's torch as she sloshed through the shallow water, counting junctions as she passed them. At the eighth, she stopped and turned left. The boys followed. Another three junctions, then she turned right, leading them north again. After four more junctions, she shone her torch upwards, scanning the ceiling of the sewer.

"Here we are," she said suddenly, the beam from her torch falling on another metal hatch.

Di handed her torch to Gary once more, telling him to point it at the hatch while she ascended the metal rail ladder embedded in the sewer wall and opened their exit route. As soon as the cover lifted, light poured through from above. A few moments later and the boys found themselves being pulled though the hatch by Di and another girl Gary recognised as Sarah, crossbow in hand, who had been guarding the sewer entrance while Di was away.

Once all three were out of the sewer tunnels, Di and Sarah replaced the hatch cover and moved a heavy crate over it. Sarah then turned to Gary and his brother.

"I know it's a novel way of escaping," the purple haired leader of the Misfits sighed, "and presumably the only one you had available, but next time try and make sure you can find your way down again before you get yourself stuck up on a roof. Your friends were quite worried."

"It was our only choice," Gary confirmed, "and we didn't mean to worry you."

"It wasn't us you worried. Come with me: I have some people who have been waiting far too impatiently too see you."

Casting a wary glance at his brother, Steve followed the girls and Gary up a flight of stairs and out into short hallway before they turned into the main area of the bar that the Misfits called home. Sitting in a corner, being watched by a rather nervous looking Anne Marie, were Christy, Zane and Marc. Beside them, bound and gagged and looking furious, was Bobbi.

"Why did you tie her up?" Gary asked Sarah, nodding at Bobbi.

"I didn't," Sarah replied, "She arrived that way."

"I did it," Christy cut in, "She was getting on my nerves and putting us all in danger."

A muffled shriek came from Bobbi's gagged mouth.

"So why..." Steve began, "Never mind, I don't want to know."

Christy sighed.

"I'd better call in and let them know we've got them," she said to the room in general before looking straight at Steve, "Britt will be going spare. I take it you have a good explanation for breaking your promise to her?"

"He got locked up by Sophie and I went to rescue him."

"And ended up getting locked up yourself?"

"Well, yes, but I did get him out eventually."

"Are you any good at grovelling?"

"Why?"

"You're gonna have to be when we get _you_ home!"


	33. Chapter 32

**Chapter 32**

Making use of the sewers once again, the small party made their way along and down the hill in the direction of the Feathers mall. Di led the way, as before, followed closely by Gary, then Sarah, then Steve with Marc, carrying a kicking and screaming Bobbi over his shoulder, right behind him. Christy followed, keeping a watchful eye on Bobbi, with Zane

and Anne Marie bringing up the rear of the party. Each member of the group, with the exception of Marc and Bobbi, carried a heavy pack on their back containing as much food, ammunition, weaponry and other essentials they could carry from the Misfits' hideout.

"We can go back for the rest later," Sarah had said as they had hoisted the weighty packs onto their backs and headed down into the sewers.

Ahead, the sewers widened out, allowing Steve to move to one side and avoid the sporadic kicks from Bobbi's feet.

"Not long now," murmured Di, turning a corner.

Sure enough, as she turned one more corner, the group found themselves faced with a grill and a flight of steps up to a small, dry antechamber.

"Anyone have a key?" Gary sighed, cynically, rattling the locked grill.

"Such little faith!" Marc teased as Christy raised the walkie talkie and pressed the button on the side.

"Hey guys," Christy said into the walkie talkie, "We're at the sewer entrance. Come down and let us in. The grill's locked."

The group waited in silence for the reply.

Nothing.

Uneasy glances passed from one person to another.

The seconds passed, ticking away into minutes.

And the water in the sewer started to rise.

"Say? Cat? Anni? Are you there?" Christy said again, pressing in the button as she spoke and making sure she let go of it when she had finished.

Still nothing.

"Guys?"

Silence.

"Guys!"

"Can they receive the signal from down here?" Anne Marie asked sheepishly.

"Are the batteries okay?" Marc asked before anyone could answer.

"Shush!" Christy snapped, listening.

The sewer quietened again. Slowly, one by one, they heard it: footsteps. Hurried, heavy footsteps. Lots of them. Without a word from anyone, the group spread out along the sewer, flattening themselves against the walls. Marc lowered Bobbi in his arms, cradling her with his arms tightly around her arms and legs to stop her kicking out and her mouth against his shoulder. Even Bobbi, though, was quiet.

The footsteps grew closer and slowed. The door to the ante-chamber opened and one, maybe two, carefully made their way across the cement floor and down the steps to the grill. There was the metallic scrape of a key in an old, unused lock and a resounding clang as the grill slid back to the wall. On one side of the opening, Gary glanced over at Sarah on the other and saw, with his one good eye, her nod and count on her fingers as the still unseen figure walked down the few remaining steps.

One.

Two.

Three.

As the shadow reached the main sewer, Gary pounced, throwing the figure to the ground. The two wrestled on the sewer steps and it looked as though Gary had the upper hand until a khaki clad knee hit him hard in the groin and he doubled up, releasing his hold on the figure.

"Nice to have you back, mate!" Cat gasped, hauling her now soaked body out of the chilly sewer waters. "Next time, I'll leave you here!"

"What took you so long!" Christy cried in relief. "Why didn't you reply?"

"Yeah, there is a bit of a story to that," Cat replied, wincing as she rubbed her shoulder, "We have a slight problem with our transmitter. Are you coming in or not? It's freezing down here and I now stink of sewer water!"

Without waiting for a response, Cat turned and headed up to the ante-chamber. At the top of the steps, she paused and turned.

"Oh, and someone had better help his lordship up I guess," she said, "Assuming he's staying this time, that is!"

Steve and Zane helped a groaning Gary to his feet and half supported, half carried him up the steps into the generator filled room of the basement.

"Don't mind the jennies," Cat muttered, dripping, as she led the party up the stairs, "they're quite happy for now."

As the group turned a corner of a generator they saw, assembled in the only space big enough, Alice, Marie, Amy, Will, Say and Anni, the last two holding back a very purple Britt. At the sight of Steve, however, she threw off her friends' hands and rushed forward, enveloping him in a huge hug. Three seconds later, she had broken the hug and was yelling at the blonde haired boy punctuating each word with punches to alternating arms.

"Where. Have. You. Been! You. Promised. You'd. Only. Be. Gone. A. Week!"

When Gary came into view beside Steve, Alice ran forward to greet him.

"You're hurt!" Alice piped up, taking the arm Steve had dropped under pressure of Britt's onslaught.

"It's nothing serious," Gary groaned, straightening up a little, "I'll be fine."

"Let me help you up to your room," Alice added enthusiatically.

"I'd leave him to it, kid," Cat called down from the stairs up to the ground floor, "I don't think he's quite in the mood for female company right now."

Alice glanced up at Cat disappearing out to the ground floor letting go of Gary's arm as she did so, then looked back at the others as they also made their way out of the basement. Gary had moved on with Zane and Will. Say was talking to Sarah and Christy. Amy was trying to pacify Bobbi as Marc carried her, still tied, up the stairs. Anne Marie and Di followed the group. Britt had gone back to hugging Steve and they two were oblivious to everything else. Only Marie was standing waiting in the now almost empty space. As Alice smiled, Anni walked past her quickly, keys in hand from locking up the sewer entrance and Marie, puppy-dog like, followed the older girl through the generators and up the stairs.

Alice sighed, huffed and stomped out of the basement, leaving Britt and Steve to each other and the unobtrusive company of the generators.


	34. Chapter 33

**Chapter 33**

"How is she?" Amy asked; the majority of the group were sitting round at tables in Darcy's restuarant, some sipping cups of coffee or tea, others quietly talking between themselves.

"Britt's doing her best to calm her down. She'll get used to the change eventually."

"You're sure there was nothing that could have been done?"

"We couldn't save them," Anni shook her head sadly, "We did our best. I'll go and see how Britt is doing."

***********************

"Stop moaning! Would you rather stink of sewers all your life?"

"I'd rather have my khakis back, minus the stink!"

"Well, we can't get rid of the stink, so these will just have to do!"

"How am I supposed to kick a guy in the head in these heels?"

"Is this an everyday occurrence or one you save for Gary?"

"Not especially, but now that you mention it..."

"You are not to go beating up Gary: do you hear me?"

"Give me one good reason not to!"

"He saved my boyfriend!"

"He ruined my khakis!"

"Mine wins!"

"Humph!"

Anni rolled her eyes and walked into the hair salon to find Cat and Britt, arms crossed, chin to chin, glaring at each other.

"Say wants to see us all in D'Arcy's," Anni cut in hesitantly. Two heads flicked round to look at her.

"Okay," replied Britt.

"We'll be down in a minute," said Cat.

***********************

"I just think you should apologise to Cat to smooth things over," Say said, watching Gary closely, "After all: it was you that attacked her."

"It was her who sneaked up on us!"

"She was just checking out a noise: you could have been anyone!"

"So could she!"

"She was very attached to those clothes."

"And I'm very attached to my..."

"They'll be down in a minute," Anni cut in, suddenly appearing from round the corner.

"Now be nice," Steve cautioned his brother, "And whatever the result, don't laugh!"

The gathered Misfits, Amazons and Counting House crew turned to look at the door. Britt was the first to enter.

"I've done my best," she said, holding up her hands and stepping to one side.

Slightly nervously and more than a touch furiously, Cat stepped into the restaurant. Her trademark green was gone and she was kitted out in loose black slacks, a black, fitted, low-cut top with long black mesh sleeves that hung down in a medieval style and black boots with a two inch heel. There was silence.

"Well?" Cat snapped, glaring at Gary.

"Huh? Wha..." Gary stammered, looking a little glazed over.

"I think he means you look nice," Steve translated.

"Um, yeah," Gary confirmed, "and sorry I jumped you, I mean attacked you... In the sewers... Um."

"Okay!" Say said, with forced cheerfulness, cutting through the odd silence that had once again descended in the room, "Well, we're all here for a reason so let's get on with it!"

"Why are we here?" Cat asked.

"We need to decide what to do about the number of people staying here," Christy explained.

"There are a lot of advantages to staying together," Zane added, "but there are some disadvantages too."

"Like whether or not we can support the extra numbers," Christy finished.

"Personally I've always like the number 12!" Bobbi chirped up, happier now that she had been released from her bonds and was free to sit wherever she wanted. Currently she wanted to sit on Marc's knee.

"Bobbi, there are 19 of us," Amy sighed.

"I know, but I still like the number 12!"

"Number 12 aside," Say cut in, resolutely trying to get the conversation back on track, "can we support 19 people in this building?"

"We have the rooms," Cat shrugged, casting sideways glances at Gary who was still staring at her in a most unnerving way, "but do we have the supplies?"

"We should have enough food in this place to feed a small army or weeks if we can keep the freezers and fridges working, but it won't last forever, whether we eat it or not."

"So what do we do when the food runs out?" Zane asked.

"Right now, I have no idea," Say sighed, "I know where the main suppliers are in this city, but it will mean sending out groups of people to collect the food before anyone else gets it, if it hasn't already gone."

"We can do that: with the map of the sewers, we can get into almost anywhere," Di chipped in.

"Plus we have more supplies stockpiled in my bar that can be brought here," Sarah added.

"And at the Counting House, if there's anything left," Steve nodded.

"I don't think it's a good idea to go back there," said Zane thoughtfully, "Sophia knows the place and she might be watching it."

"Not if we use the sewers, surely?"

"She doesn't have to be watching it from the outside: what if she has guards on the inside, waiting for you to come back?"

"She's not that clever!" Gary muttered.

"Neither are you!" Cat muttered in return.

"Play nice children!" Anni sighed.


	35. Chapter 34

**Chapter 34**

"My lady, the guard captain from the Counting House has returned and is waiting in your office."

Sophia sighed and raised herself from the couch on which she lay, her long hair piled up on top of her head and a masseuse kneading the muscles of her back. She waved the masseuse away and removed the single pin that held her hair in place. It swept along behind her as she breezed past the messenger and out of the room.

The corridor between her private quarters and her office was long and cold. The necessity for space between one and the other, however, was far greater than the need for comfort. She walked quickly to avoid the chill, her high heels clicking impatiently on the floorboards as she made her way onwards. When she finally reached the office and brushed past the guard who had hurried to open the door for her, she was met by a rush of warm air from the computer systems running within.

"Report!" Sophia snapped at the Counting House guard.

"My lady," the captain began, saluting, "there has been no sign of activity either within the building or outside it. My men have been placed strategically at watch points where they may observe without being seen themselves and are following a three watch pattern. All entrances to the building have been located and either blocked or guarded. A thorough search has been made of the premises and all bodies found have been disposed of as ordered."

Sophia raised an eyebrow and looked the guard captain over critically. Although not the most charismatic of leaders, he was at least good at his job.

"Satisfactory," she replied, in clipped, staccato tones, "You may return to your men. Take any additional men you need and rations for a week. You are to remain there and form a garrison at the Counting House. Send messengers with written reports daily. They may be armed. Use any spare men to ready the building to be used as a barracks. If anyone does turn up, your initial orders regarding such an event still apply. Any questions?"

"No, my lady."

"Good. You may go."

The captain saluted again, then turned and left the room. Sophia watched him go thoughtfully: she had been sure someone would have tried to return to the Counting House by now.

***********************

"You realise this still doesn't make up for disappearing on me."

"Hey: that wasn't my fault! You know it wasn't!"

"I know there was a good chance when you walked out that door that you'd _never_ be coming back! So did you! You still promised you'd be back in a week!"

"Britt, I had to go: he's my brother!"

Steve threw his arms out to the side in a gesture of defeat. He sighed. He knew Britt was right: nobody should make a promise they knew they might not be able to keep. There wasn't anything he could do about that now, though. Except apologise, of course... And bring her breakfast... And do her chores... And tidy the salon...

He had just finished sweeping the floor of the salon. Britt's new pet project had been popular with the growing group and there was plenty of work needing done to get the salon back into full working order. He ran his hand through his spiky, bleached blond hair, rolled his eyes and shrugged. There was nothing else for it. The Misfits had been right. He would have to grovel.

Edging over to the door to check for onlookers, Steve took a deep breath, closed the door and strode over to Britt. She looked mildly surprised at first, but that was nothing compared to the look of mingled amazement and amusement that played across her features when he dropped to his knees and took both her hands in his.

"My wonderful, amazing, beautiful, darling Brittany: I am truly, truly sorry for leaving you and for making you a promise that I couldn't keep. I ask of you, nay beg of you: can you ever forgive me?"

***********************

"You stink: where are the nice new clothes Britt looked out for you?"

Anni craned her neck upwards in the direction of the smell.

"My dearest Anni," Cat's voice floated down from the myriad of pipes, "I know how much you think of Britt's skills as the new Gok Wan, but do you really expect me to work up here, on this stuff, in those sleeves and shoes? Besides: that's not me that actually is the sewers. Di and Sarah just went out that way five minutes ago to get some more stuff from their place."

"Huh. So what are you wearing, dare I ask?"

"Old pair of jeans and that T-shirt I got free at a Guinness drinking contest."

"Oh, you mean the one you _won_ at the Guinness drinking contest?"

"Was that all you came down here to ask me or was there something more important?"

"Zane sent me down to say he's nearly finished with the alarm system and he wanted to know if you want a hand here or up on the roof?"

"He sent you to ask me that? Why didn't he just wait until he was finished then come down and ask me himself?"

"I don't know, but it might have had something to do with the fact that Christy had just showed up."

"Ah. Oh dear."

"What does that mean?"

"It means, dearest, that we may have to keep an eye on Christy for a while. Aren't you forgetting the fiancé that mysteriously dumped her and disappeared into the night just before she arrived here? After crashing her stolen car, I might add."

"True. I guess you're right."

"I'm not saying we put the dampers on it totally: we just need to make sure he's not going to hurt her."

"What makes you think he will?"

"What makes you think he won't?"

***********************

"What do you think?"

"I don't know, it's tricky."

"You can do it. You're good with tweezers: you took the bullet out of Marc's shoulder, remember. This can't be tougher than that."

"But if my hand shakes, even just a little bit, it's all over!"

"Just try. I can't exactly do it for you!"

Taking a deep breath, Beth picked up the tweezers. Kyle watched her progress apprehensively. The fine ends of the instruments closed on their target and slowly, carefully, Beth began to remove it. Kyle held his breath: she was almost there. The atmosphere was tense. All eyes were locked on to the painfully slow movement of Beth's hand. Sweat began to form on her small forehead. She was almost there. Just a little farther.

A buzzer rang out. Kyle and Beth groaned. Alice and Marie cheered.

"And I'm still the Queen of Operation!" Alice cheered. "Hand over the prize! We won!"

Laughing, Marie picked up the paper crown that had spent the game in pride of place atop a purloined hat model, on a plinth, in the middle of the old, but not yet defunct, shoppers' crèche. She placed it on Alice's head with great reverence, then burst into a fit of giggles.

***********************

Will tiptoed into the shoe store. Spotting Marc in the far corner, he raised a hand. Marc got up and tiptoed over to him, picking his way gingerly through the scattered shoes, scarves, cushions and handbags that Bobbi seemed to think made a good carpet.

"Is she still asleep?" Will asked, keeping his voice as low as possible.

"Sound," Marc replied. "She seems to have burned herself out."

Will took Marc's arm and led him out of the store and out of sight of the sleeping figure of Bobbi.

"What's wrong?" Marc frowned at his friends surreptitious behaviour.

"Nothing, nothing," Will whispered quickly. "It's just: I've been talking to Amy..."

"You seem to spend a lot of time doing that."

"And she's been telling me about Bobbi. How she was before this happened. The sort of stuff that led to her current state of mind."

"And this has to be spoken of in secret why exactly?"

"I think Bobbi is building a world around herself so that she doesn't have to face the real one: the one in which her family, most notably her mother, is dead."

"I thought we'd worked that one out already."

"Well, we had," Will admitted, shrugging, "but what I'm talking about now is what we do about it. Every day, every minute, that Bobbi spends in your company, playing with shoes or whatever else, then the deeper into her world she sinks and the further from reality she gets."

"So, what? You want me to abandon her?" Marc raised his voice a bit, anger starting to seep through.

"Mate: you hardly know her! You've never seen her in her right mind! You don't need to be so protective of her all of the time. You need to let Amy take over for a bit, and some of her other friends too. Let them try to bring her back to normality. They're the only ones who stand a chance!"

"Oh, because they'd obviously been doing so well up until we arrived!"

"Granted, they need a bit of help, but I have an idea."

"Which is what, exactly?"

"I want to try hypnotic regression therapy."

Marc laughed. A short, sharp burst of laughter that made Will's face darken.

"You want to hypnotise her?"

"What's so ridiculous about that? It's a known therapeutic technique. It's frequently used to help patients recover repressed memories so that they can deal with them in a healthy way instead of resorting to living in a fantasy world!"

"Listen to yourself, Doctor Frasier Crane! You got through one year of psych. before this nightmare happened and now you think you're an expert! You've never hypnotised someone in your life! What makes you so sure you won't just put her into a sleep she won't come out of?"

"I know what I'm doing, at least in theory! I might not be an expert, but I'm the best we've got! Or perhaps you would rather she stayed in her current dream world, depending on you for the rest of her life! Perhaps you're scared your new pet project isn't going to want you around so much once she's sane!"

"And I suppose you want me to help you with it: keep her calm for you while you start playing Russian roulette with her mind?"

"No, actually, I don't want you anywhere near her. I want you to go back to your room, your own room, and stay there until it's over. Amy will help me keep her calm."

"What, now?"

"The more she sees of you, the more difficult it will be to bring her back. If you really care for her as much as you say you do, you'll go. Now."

Marc opened his mouth to reply and was cut off as a pair of black-clad legs wrapped around his waist and blue-clad arms around his shoulders. Bobbi's face appeared over his shoulder.

"MINE!"


	36. Chapter 35

Chapter 35

"You're being childish!"

"She doesn't want to go!"

"What she wants is irrelevant!"

"Who are you to decide that?"

"Her oldest friend!"

"And her only psychiatrist!"

Amy and Will glared at Marc. The tall, muscular young man was physically blocking their route into Bobbi's hiding place: her beloved shoe store. Over his shoulder, they could see Bobbi's black and blue hair sticking up from behind the cash desk.

"Bobbi!" Amy called, ignoring Marc. "Come on, sweetie, we don't want to hurt you!"

"No!" Bobbi's voice shouted back.

"Bobbi, we just want to help!" Will tried.

"You'll take me away!"

"No we won't!"

"You'll take Marc away then!"

"They couldn't if they tried," Marc cut in.

"Bobbi!" Amy cried, her voice beginning to sound desperate. "You can't go on like this! You're not yourself!"

"You have to deal with your grief," shouted Will. "You can't keep bottling it up inside. You have to talk it through at some point."

"I'll talk it through with anyone, so long as Marc stays!"

Amy looked up at Will, her eyes pleading. Will's eyebrows rose up his forehead, then he sighed, rolled his eyes and nodded.

"Okay," called Amy. "We'll do it your way."

* * *

"We need to prioritise," said Anni. "Work out what we have to do and what the most important things are."

"I don't see why," replied Gary. "There are enough of us now to split the work and get it all done at once."

"Some jobs take longer than others, and are easier with more people," said Say. "Take the food inventory: that would have taken ages to finish if I'd been doing it on my own. There's no way the fridges and freezers would have stayed cold long enough."

"Are there still stores to add to the inventory?" Steve asked.

"One or two," said Cat. "Mainly the specialist ones: The Whisky Shop, Kshocolat, Starbucks..."

"Don't forget the Herb Store, too," said Zane. "We wouldn't have got far without that."

"I think that should go down as a separate resource," Britt suggested. The others nodded.

"So what do we have so far?" Anni asked, brandishing a pen and paper.

"Provisions," said Say. "Internal and external. Energy supplies. Security. Other resources."

"What category do you want me to put the Herb Store under?"

"Other resources," said Britt. "It doesn't really fall into the other three."

"Okay," said Anni, making a note on the sheet before her. "So that's four areas to work on."

"Don't forget the general maintenance work around here," Christy added. "We're all still fixing up the stores so that we can live in them. That takes time and people."

"True," Anni added another category.

"Apart from moving beds around, though, that's all a fairly low priority," said Gary. "I mean, what's more important: food or wallpaper?"

"Don't all fall over in shock, but I agree with Gary," said Cat, prompting an exchange of raised eyebrows between Say and Anni. "Anyway: with the top priority stuff we should all be too busy to care what our rooms look like."

"So who does what?" Anni asked, changing the subject.

"Well, Zane and I will go over the security stuff," said Christy, "but we'll need to draw up a rota for guard duty and something will have to be done to keep an eye on the sewer entrance. It's the only way any bad guys can get in, but it's also our only way out. We need to be able to defend it."

"I could do with a hand up on the roof now that the bad weather is starting to set in," said Cat. "The quicker all the panels are connected up, the better."

"I can help with that," Steve offered. "I'm good with mechanics."

"We'll also need to stockpile all the other energy resources we've got," said Say. "You know: batteries and the like."

"I can do that," Gary stuck his hand up.

"I'll help," said Britt.

"That leaves Provisions and Other Resources," said Anni. "Say and I will continue with the inventory of the provisions in the Mall, and we've got the kids helping out with that."

"We'll take the foraging side of things," said Sarah, speaking up for the first time in the meeting. "Di knows the sewers better than anyone and we've already got a few ideas of where to look first."

"Which leaves us with Other Resources, but no spare hands," Anni sighed.

"Maybe Kyle and Beth could make a start on the Herb Store," Britt suggested. "The rest isn't just as important: it could wait until other stuff has been done. Gary and I could move on to the other resources side of things once we've finished hunting batteries."

"And Alice and Marie could join them once they've finished helping us," said Say.

"And then, once everything else is in place, we can start sorting out our living quarters," Cat finished.

"That sounds sensible, at least," said Anni. "Is everyone agreed?"

"What about Amy, Will and Marc?" Christy asked.

"Oh, I think they've got enough on their plates just now!" Gary laughed.

* * *

"Bobbi, please: try to concentrate!" Amy pleaded as her friend's eyes darted from the swinging pendant to Will, who was holding it, to Marc sitting at the side of the room.

"This is hopeless!" Will sighed, dropping the pendant. Ironically, Bobbi's eyes stayed on the pendant for longer than they had before, but soon flitted off to the sides of the room again.

"What are we going to do with her?" Amy groaned as Bobbi started playing with her shoes again.

Will and Amy started as Marc stood up. He had been so still and quiet that they had forgotten he was there.

"I have an idea," he said, keeping his voice low. "Wait here. Keep her occupied."

Amy and Will exchanged glances as Marc disappeared, silently, from the room. They quickly turned their attention back to Bobbi, but she was too busy trying to undo the triple knot in Will's boot laces.

"She can concentrate on that when she wants to!" Will muttered.

Will jumped when a silver court shoe on a chain dropped in front of his eyes. He looked up to see Marc standing over him, dangling the chain.

"Ah! No! Not for you!" Marc said suddenly, pulling the chain upward out of the reach of the fist that had just closed on thin air where the silver shoe had been. Will looked down to see Bobbi's attention now riveted onto the shiny shoe.

"Finally," he breathed.

* * *

On the other side of the city centre, a young man stumbled through the quiet streets. He was unwashed and unbrushed. Thirsty and half starved. His hair and beard were a tangled mess and his clothes were dirty and torn. He had known this art of the city like the back of his hand before the virus, but now, it was all he could do to remind himself that he was in the same city. He certainly wasn't in the same world: that had changed far beyond recognition. Normal life had gone and all that was left were feral groups of children scavenging anything they could from the streets and shops. He had tried his best to avoid them. His general appearance helped in that respect. Now he needed to sleep. Somewhere safe, where the rats wouldn't bother him.

He pushed the broken glass of a shop window to one side with his foot and dragged himself across the darkened floor to the cash desk, gathering up what clothes and other materials were left as he went. Dumping the armful of fabrics behind the counter, he limped off in the direction of the store room, returning a few moments later with an armful of flattened cardboard boxes. Soon he had built himself a warm nest behind the counter, with a mattress of cardboard and a blanket of dresses. He buried himself in the pile and let his exhausted body fall into a deep slumber.


	37. Chapter 36

Chapter 36

"Well?" Anni looked up expectantly as Will and Amy trudged into D'Arcy's and slumped into two cushioned chairs.

"I think some form of caffeinated beverage might be in order!" Will sighed, leaning his head back on the chair and closing his eyes.

"Same here!" Amy agreed, slumping forwards with her head in her hands.

"Then it didn't work?" Say asked, turning to the coffee machine.

"Don't know," Will muttered, without opening his eyes. "She's sleeping. We won't know until morning."

"Shouldn't you both be getting some proper rest then, instead of drinking coffee," suggested Anni.

"We're going to take it in turns to keep an eye on her," said Amy. "Marc's with her now to let us get something to eat and so on, then we'll take over and let him sleep. He's shattered too."

"How can hypnosis possibly be so tiring?"

"Easy!" Will answered. "Just try it on someone who wants to grab the pendulum every five seconds!"

* * *

"Remind me why we're up here in the bitter cold?" Christy shuddered and pulled her coat closer round her.

"Just take a look," said Zane. "Look up. The sky is absolutely clear. Not a cloud in it and no light pollution either. Not now."

"Oh yeah, so we get a nice view while we freeze!"

"Some things require a bit of sacrifice!" Zane laughed. "If it was a warm night, there'd be clouds and then you wouldn't see anything!"

"I'm still not sure what I'm looking at!"

Zane walked over and stood behind Christy, raising one arm to point at a random spot in the cloudless sky.

"Look, follow my finger, okay," he said, keeping his arm steady. "You see that red dot? We are fifty five degrees, fifty one minutes North, roughly anyway, and about four degrees fifteen minutes West. It is twenty past one on the morning of the second of October two thousand and three. That makes that red dot the planet Mars. The larger stars surrounding it: they're the constellation Aquarius."

"How do you know all this stuff?" Christy asked, squinting along the length of Zane's arm.

"Astronomy was one of my uni courses," Zane answered quietly. "But I've been into it for years. My dad had his own telescope. He taught me most of what I know."

"You know I think I saw a telescope in one of the stores," said Christy after a moment. "You could use it if you want: nobody would mind."

"I'd need someone to help me set it up. Care to volunteer?"

Christy looked round and smiled.

"Yeah, sure," she replied. "I think I can manage that."

* * *

"Do you think they've really cured her?" Say asked as she and Anni watched Will and Amy leave the restaurant.

"Who knows," Anni shrugged. "I guess we'll all just have to wait and see."

The two girls had been sitting either side of the restaurant bar, discussing everyone else's private lives in detail. It was a round about way of dealing with the fact that neither of them felt like sleeping and at least one of them had to keep an eye on things overnight. Say was listening out for any intruders. Anni was watching the Whisky shop.

"Do you really think she'll try again?" Say whispered.

"Of course she will," Anni sighed, staring at her mug of coffee.

"Why not just take another bottle from here?"

"She knows we've finished the inventory."

"The other restaurants?"

"Same."

"Doesn't she realise we'll hear her? That grill must make some racket going up!"

"It has mysteriously been oiled at some point during the day. Plus, it doesn't have to go all the way up: just enough to let someone underneath."

"So you think she'll try tonight?"

Anni nodded.

"It's her way of coping. Well, her way of getting to sleep, anyway. Let's hope that's all it is. The last thing we need is a chief mechanic with shaky hands."

* * *

Beneath a pile of clothes, on a bed of cardboard, the tramp stirred. The rats that had curled up beside him in the soft nest of material, drawing warmth from his body heat, woke and complained loudly. The tramp was too deep in an exhausted slumber to notice them and soon, after nosing around in the shapeless pile a little more, the rats curled themselves back into their little hollows and returned to a peaceful sleep.


	38. Chapter 37

A/N: Sorry folks: I didn't realise it had taken all the dividers out. Let me know if there are any other chapters like that.

* * *

**Chapter 37**

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning or in rain?"

"Cut it out, Cat!"

"What? Have you seen the sky up there? It's fantastic!"

"It's a raging thunderstorm on a glass roof," Say pointed out. "Beth's terrified. She's shut herself in a cupboard and even Kyle can't get her to come out."

"Well, if she's happy in her cupboard let her stay there," Cat shrugged. "She'll come out when it's over, or when she's hungry."

Cat, Say and Anni lay on their backs, side by side in the middle of the atrium, watching the storm overhead. Say was there because she couldn't sleep and had heard Cat and Anni talking. Anni was there because she was keeping an eye on Cat and her late night wanderings. Cat was there because she was addicted to thunderstorms.

"You know you're going to have to go up there and fix it all when this is all over," Anni muttered.

"I know," Cat replied. "I guess it'll be something to keep me out of his lordship's way."

"Gary's not that bad, you know," said Say. "Once you get to know him of course."

"Yeah, yeah, says you!" Cat muttered. "Maybe I'll get round to getting to know him one day. Right now I have a thunderstorm to watch."

"You should be in bed," Say persisted. "We all should. It's gone midnight!"

"'Tis now the very witching hour of night..."

"That's Hamlet!" Anni complained.

"What would you prefer? The Tempest? 'As you from crimes would pardoned be, let your indulgence set me free...'"

"I'd prefer sleep!"

"Then go sleep!" Cat laughed as another peal of thunder died away. "I'm not stopping you!"

"No, but that is!" Anni pointed a finger up at the see-through ceiling as yet another fork of lightning flashed across the sky, throwing the white beams supporting the glass ceiling against the black sky into complete negative.

"Wow!" Cat breathed as thunder rumbled just seconds later. "It's getting closer you know!"

"We know!" Say and Anni replied in unison.

XXXX

"It's so beautiful, isn't it," said Britt, staring up out of the massive window of the salon as the storm flashed and danced across the inky black sky above. Without the street lamps to light them, the exquisite architecture of the buildings opposite faded away into velvet darkness between the lightning strikes.

"Not half as beautiful as you, babe," replied Steve. The response he got to this was a purple scatter cushion living up to it's name by being scattered in his general direction. He dodged it easily and made his way over to Britt, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Yeah, yeah. You don't get away with dodgy lines like that quite that easily, buster!" Britt laughed, ignoring Steve's attempts to drag her attention away from the storm.

"What? I can't give you a compliment now?" Steve pouted at Britt's reflection in the window, making her laugh even more.

"Not when you're only after one thing by it! I've got standards, you know!"

"No kidding!" Steve joked. He quickly doubled over as a sharp elbow connected with his guts. "That hurt!"

"Be grateful I didn't aim lower!" Britt muttered, still entranced by the storm outside.

XXXX

"You should get some sleep," Amy muttered, putting a hand on Marc's shoulder. "We'll take over for now."

"No, I'm fine," he muttered, gazing down at Bobbi's sleeping form with a deep frown creasing his forehead.

"You're exhausted. If she wakes up, I'll send Will to get you."

"Are you sure you can bear to be parted from him that long?" Marc spat. "You two seem joined at the hip these days!"

"Look, you are tired and worried, so I will let that one slide," said Amy, her voice hardening. "But don't you ever speak to me like that! Maybe I have spent a lot of time with Will recently, but that's because he's been trying his best to help cure Bobbi. He's the reason she's sleeping so peacefully now!"

"Aren't you worried?" Marc asked, looking up at Amy. "She's supposed to be your best friend and she's been sleeping for a whole day!"

"Of course I'm worried!" Amy frowned, offended. "Will said she would sleep it out, and that's what she's doing. I'm worried she's been sleeping for so long, but at least that's all she's doing. She's still breathing. Her pulse is fine. Her temperature is fine. She moves about a bit, so she's not in a coma. She's just exhausted! Just like you! We shouldn't be surprised really: she's been awake for days at a time through all of this!"

"You certainly seem to put a lot of faith in what Will says." Marc muttered.

"Don't you?"

"Maybe."

Amy sighed and sat down on the end of Bobbi's bed.

"Look, you care about her, I know," she said gently, watching Marc's face keenly. "It's obvious. But you have to remember that you don't really know her. Not the real her. I do. I know who I expect to wake up. I know what she'll eat for breakfast, whether she feels like eating or not. When she goes in a strop, I know how to get her out of it, and when not to try. I know her. All her little foibles and quirks. All her good points and all her bad points. I know all of this and I already love her as she is. She's my best friend and she's going to stay that way no matter what. Can you say that? Can you be sure that the girl you think you're falling for isn't just the madwoman who took over for a while, not the real girl inside? And can you be sure you won't break her heart when you figure out that she's not the same person and you're not interested any more?"

"No, I can't be sure," Marc admitted. "Nobody could possibly be that sure of anything, even if she was herself when we first met. What I am sure about, though, is this: I want to find out who she really is. More than anything else in my life right now, I want to get to know her. Properly. And okay: maybe when I do that, I'll find we don't get on as well as I might have hoped. But maybe we will. I can't sit back and choose not to get to know her just in case I hurt her. All that would do is hurt us both. I have to take the chance. If I've learned nothing else from what has happened these past few months, it's that life is short! You have to grab it with both hands whenever you get the chance! If there is just the slightest, tiniest, minuscule chance that the real Bobbi is someone I could be happy with, then there is nothing you can do to stop me finding that out."


	39. Chapter 38

**Chapter 38**

The morning light dawned bright and cold, fighting to summon the strength to melt the icy patterns sketching their way across the windows of the Feathers mall. Bobbi traced a finger along one of the patterns, her eyes focussed intently on the branching crystals shining on the other side of the glass.

It had been one week now. One whole week since she had woken up in a bed in a shoe store surrounded by random shoes and being watched over by Amy and the dark, brooding figure of Marc.

Marc.

He was one thing that stood out from the past months. She was drawn to him. She had been then, and she was now. But that was then, and this was now. Back then, she had felt no problem whatsoever about grabbing hold of him whenever, or wherever, she felt like it. A smile tweaked the side of her mouth as her shady memory filled in a few of those blanks. She had been audacious before, but never quite that audacious. She certainly didn't feel quite so brave now.

Fears tugged at her mind as she stared at the slowly thawing frost. Marc had stuck with her so far, but how long before he worked out that that possessive, uninhibited madwoman wasn't her? How long before he got bored with the real Bobbi and disappeared?

She turned her head away from the window, registering the sound of someone calling her voice. It was Will. Bobbi's face curled into a grimace if distaste. As the door to her hideaway opened, she turned back to the window in sullen stubbornness.

"There you are," Will sighed. Bobbi rolled her eyes at the voice she could only find patronising and creepy. Will stepped closer and carried on. "Amy's looking for you," he said. "Say's made pancakes for breakfast."

Bobbi pulled the edges of her chunky, black cardigan closer around her. It was cold up here. She hadn't eaten since dinner last night, and she'd spent most of the morning sitting up here staring out of the window and thinking. If only it hadn't been Will who managed to find her.

Behind her, she heard Will step closer to her. A hand came to rest on her shoulder. She shrugged it off.

"Touch me again and I'll break your nose," she hissed. "Tell Say I'll be down in a minute."

"It's Amy who's looking for you," Will replied, folding his hands behind his back.

"I'll tell Amy myself, thank you."

Bobbi listened as Will's heavy footsteps receded across the room and disappeared, the door swinging shut behind him. She would have to go down. It wasn't as if it was a big deal, just breakfast. Just a meal. She'd been down to other meals. Some of them she'd dodged, eating from a plate on her lap in her shoe shop. Others she had missed entirely. Dinner yesterday had been the former, lunch the latter. She would have to get used to being part of the group, of course, even if it was just for one meal a day. Breakfast was always quietest and, therefore, easiest to deal with.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Bobbi stood up. She pulled up the black and blue striped sock that had been pushed down to her ankle by her perch on the windowsill, wrapped the long cardigan round her again and made her way to the door.

XXXX

The tramp stumbled down an alleyway, tripping and rolling himself behind a pile of rubbish. He lay there, panting, listening to the rumble of feet passing the end of the alley. The noise of the crowd that had been chasing him gradually faded away. He relaxed, rolling on to his back and closing his eyes. It was getting too dangerous out on the streets now. His appearance caused fear and hate wherever he went. He had few options left. Continue to take his chances out in the open and wait for his luck to run out; hide in one of the many empty buildings and wait for his food to run out; or go underground and try to make it out of the city that way. He decided on the third option.

XXXX

Bobbi looked round at the group gathered for breakfast. Say was placing a plate of pancakes in front of Anni, who sat waiting eagerly with a bottle of chocolate sauce in one hand and a fork in the other. Will sat by Amy's side, his arm on the back of her chair. Amy was smiling at something he had said, her attention fully on him and her back to Bobbi.

A movement from the side of the room caught Bobbi's eye. She turned to look in its direction and saw Marc. He had stood up and was watching her. Still seated, opposite Marc, was another of the boys. The one with one eye. Bobbi searched her hazy memories for a name. The name Gary stood out, but she couldn't pick out any memory where the face and the name went together.

Realising she was staring in their direction, Bobbi looked away sharply. There were other faces in the restaurant, each at their own tables in their own small groups. Some she recognised, others she couldn't be sure of. Two young girls, one a bright blonde, the other a fiery redhead, were pinging crumbs at each other across a table in another far corner. A girl with a shock of bright pink hair leant back in a chair at another table, one foot resting on the edge of the table itself, across from a younger, orange-haired girl, a peroxide blonde boy and a dark skinned girl. The blonde boy looked like Gary. As Bobbi watched them, she saw his hand slip from its resting place on the back of the dark skinned girl's chair and surreptitiously trace its way down her back, coming to rest somewhere below the line of the table. The girl's response, without turning her gaze away from the pink haired girl who was talking, was to slide her right hand under the table and over to the boy's leg. Where it went after that, Bobbi could not see, but the boy smiled and placed a gentle kiss on the girl's bare shoulder. Both were vaguely familiar to Bobbi, but the idea that they were lovers was new to her. She filed the information away for future reference.

At the same table as the now very happy Anni sat Christy and a brown haired boy. Bobbi noticed that Anni and Say were watching them carefully, but trying to look like they were simply sitting at the same table for breakfast. Something else going on there to look out for then. Bobbi examined the boy's features. She'd seen him before, but she couldn't place him. No name came into her mind. The attention he was paying to Christy, though, made it obvious that he had some kind of feelings for her. Christy's behaviour, however, wasn't quite so clear and Bobbi couldn't be sure if Say's old friend felt the same way as her admirer.

Bobbi felt the rush of air move past her and looked round suddenly. Marc had gone. She looked down, suddenly confused. Should she go after him or let him be? She felt a hand on her arm and looked up. It was Gary.

"Come on," he said softly. "Come and have breakfast."

Bobbi opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again, suddenly self-conscious. She followed Gary over to the table he had recently shared with Marc and sat down while Gary went and collected a plate of pancakes and a mug of black coffee. He placed them before her silently and returned to the counter for milk, sugar and cutlery.

"How are you feeling?" Gary asked once Bobbi had started tucking into her breakfast.

"A little hazy," Bobbi replied. "I remember some stuff, but not others."

"Such as?"

"Faces, but not names. Places, but not where they were or when. That sort of thing."

"I'm Gary."

"I know," Bobbi took a sip of the coffee, feeling a little more relaxed now that she was doing something relatively normal and nobody had stared at her yet. "At least, I thought that was your name, but I can't remember how I know that, if that makes any sense."

"It makes sense," Gary took a sip of his own coffee. "Who else do you remember?"

"Everyone I knew before: Amy, Say, Anni, Christy, Cat; and you, Will and Marc."

"You do remember Marc then?"

"Yes, of course I do. I..." Bobbi stopped suddenly and looked up at Gary. "Is that why he left? Because he thinks I don't remember him?"

"Partly that, yes," Gary nodded. "Also the slight fact that you've barely spoken to him since you've woken up. In fact, he thinks you've been avoiding him. He left so that you would stay and eat with the rest of us. He was worried you would leave again because he was here."

"But I'm not avoiding him... I mean, I am, but not for that reason."

"You should probably tell him that then."

XXXX

Di shifted the weight of the backpack on her shoulder and pulled her three-quarter length coat closer round her. It was getting colder in the mornings, especially down here in the sewers where the sun almost never reached. She calmly side-stepped a rat scurrying along the side of the walkway and turned a corner into a new tunnel. She knew these tunnels like the back of her hand by now. Rats didn't bother her, nor did the lack of light or the ever-present smell of detritus. She reached the exit she was looking for and shifted the backpack onto both shoulders before reaching out for the ladder to the surface.


	40. Chapter 39

**Chapter 39**

"How many are there now?" Britt called back over her shoulder.

"Half a bucket full, and stop throwing them at it!" Gary replied wearily. "Apart from the fact I can't catch them, you're going to end up breaking something!"

"I thought you were keeping count?" Britt sighed, turning to look at her boyfriend's brother.

"Forgive me, I was too busy dodging flying batteries!" Gary quipped. "Now can we try and be a bit more careful with them: we need as many as we can get."

"Yeah, yeah. You're starting to sound like Cat, you know."

Gary stopped walking and glared at Britt. It wasn't the first time their conversation had included Gary's nemesis. Right from the start, Britt had spent most of her time firing questions at him about his brother. Working teams beings as they were, that had naturally led on to the topic of mechanics and, necessarily, Cat. Ever since then, for some reason Gary couldn't quite fathom, Britt had kept bringing her up at random intervals.

"It's a shame she doesn't wear that outfit I picked out for her more," Britt mused, turning back to the cupboard she was raiding. "You know: the one I picked out after you ruined her beloved khakis?"

"I know the one," Gary replied through gritted teeth.

"Oh, that's right, you were there, weren't you?" Britt's tone was all innocence. "When she came down to D'Arcy's with it on that first time. Oh, yes: I remember your face."

"Haven't you finished that cupboard yet?"

"You know, she's probably keeping it for something special," Britt continued, getting up from that cupboard and moving on to the next. "Like, oh, I don't know: dinner maybe?"

"I don't know if you've noticed," Gary growled, "but the civilised world ended a while ago. I don't think there are many places left serving."

"We have plenty restaurants here," Britt wasn't going to be put off by such a small insignificant thing as an apocalypse. "And we have our very own chef. I'm sure Say would love the chance to cook something special once in a while."

"I'll be sure and let Steve know. What food do you prefer? Italian or French? Or are you guys past the dating stage?"

There was a sharp intake of breath and a pause from Britt and Gary smiled. He had little enough idea what was going on with his little brother's love life, and he cared less, but if the occasional jab got him out of talking about his own, it was a small victory.

"I think we should take these down to D'Arcy's and start sorting and counting them," said Britt, dumping a large armful of newly collected batteries into Gary's bucket and making him double over at the sudden increase in weight. Without waiting for a reply, she brushed past him and headed back towards the stairs.

XXXX

"What the heck is that?" Anni's nose wrinkled as she peered down into the tub she'd removed from the fridge. From either side of her, Alice and Marie appeared and stuck their noses in the tub and beat a hasty retreat, pulling faces and making disgusted noises.

Say wandered out of the freezer to find out what all the "ews" were about and looked down at the carton in Anni's hands.

"Oh, it's natural yoghurt," she said, pleased. "I was hoping there would be some. It'll help up make better use of all the milk we've got. That'll go off soon if we don't do something about it."

"I don't know about you, but there's no way I'm putting that in my coffee!" Anni replied. "It stinks! Even I can tell it's off!"

"It is, yes," Say nodded, "but we can use a starter culture from it to try making our own yoghurt, and maybe cheese too."

"I thought cheese had something to do with dead calves stomachs?"

"It does, most of the time, but there are other ways."

"What are you: the reincarnation of a dairy maid?"

"I grew up on a farm: you know that," Say shrugged. "That's where my love of food came from."

"So what do you want done with this stuff?"

"Put it back in the fridge just now and make a note of it. I have to get back to the freezer and make sure those two aren't just messing about again."

"Okay, captain: one smelly yoghurt noted and reviled."

XXXX

Bobbi sat in the corner of her room. It was tidier than it had been. Avoiding people had left her with plenty of time on her hands and now she was almost out of things to do. She had cleared all the shoes into boxes, then resorted them into different boxes for each size. She had taken down all the shelves, moved everything out of the room, excluding the bed, and swept every corner thoroughly. She had crept up and down to the various household furnishings stores about the mall, collecting rugs, paint, cushions and bed linen. She had painted her walls: the back one was black and the sides were deep blue. She had spread the rugs over the cold floor, rearranging them until they fitted like pieces in a jigsaw, with only a few gaps here and there. The rugs were all blue, but they varied in shade. No single colour had been that popular in the stores. She had changed the bedding. She now had black sheets and bright white pillows and duvet. The only trouble was it all fitted a double bed, not the single she currently had.

The bed was a problem: she couldn't move it on her own and she certainly couldn't take it to bits on her own. She'd already picked out the one she wanted to replace it with: a beautiful black, wrought iron bed frame that would contrast with her white bedding. She'd already swapped the mattress over: it was now on the rug covered floor and the bare wooden bed frame and single mattress stood mournfully by the shop window. Maybe she could cover it with throws and make it into a sort of sofa, she thought. That would mean relinquishing her idea of the white leather dream sofa she'd seen downstairs though.

Raising a hand to the walls on either side of her, Bobbi noted that the paint was now dry. Time to start the next free shopping trip. There was a white, art deco wall mirror downstairs with a matching free standing full length counterpart. They were top of her shopping list. The shelves had been white to begin with, but now they were clean too. They could go up again. Well, some of them could. There were some blue curtains down in the linen shop that she wanted to add across the window and door, and a silver and white art deco standard lamp that would fit nicely in the corner by that long mirror. She needed a screen or two, to hide the sleeping and dressing areas of the room, but she could worry about that later. She'd already cleared the clutter out of the large walk in cupboard at the back of her room, but getting a wardrobe rail in there was going to be a bit trickier.

Sighing, Bobbi pushed herself to her feet. At least everyone was still busy with inventories and stuff just now. Well, most people were, from what she could make out. She had no idea where Amy and Will were, or where Marc was. She dragged a hand across her brow and picked up the holdall she'd been using as a shopping trolley. She would have to speak to him eventually, she thought. Maybe she could ask him to help with the room.

From the atrium below, Bobbi heard the sound of voices arguing. One was Britt. Bobbi walked over to the railing and looked down. Britt and her peroxide headed boyfriend were "having a domestic" as Amy would have said. From the safety of the restaurants, Gary could be seen looking on, a bucket beside him on the table, with Cat leaning against the wall farther over talking to Anni.

Maybe she should ask Gary for help with the room, Bobbi thought. Gary had been nice that morning, at breakfast, and he looked like he could do with an excuse to escape for a while. That way, she could find out a bit more about Marc in the process.

XXXX

Di perched herself on the sewer steps. It had been a good day. She had gone out with a rucksack, a satchel and a bottle of water and now she was on her way back having filled the bags, picked up two more and found out a little bit more about the goings on at Central Station.

It hadn't all been food that she'd found. Some of the shops she'd gone into in the full knowledge that there was nothing edible bar the biscuits in the staff room. Everything she'd brought back, however, was useful. The long purple scarf that was now wrapped around her neck had been found that day, as had the thick coil of insulated copper wiring, box of nails and tin of crocodile clips.

Making sure the lid of her bottle was firmly back in place, Di picked herself up and let herself down from the steps gently. She still had some distance to go before she was back in the safety of the mall. She froze as she heard heavy footsteps sloshing through the sewer water behind her. The footsteps grew nearer, then stopped. Realising that she'd been seen, Di turned to face the newcomer. The face that met her gaze in the dark, dull light of the sewers made the breath in her throat catch, just for a moment.

Then she screamed.


	41. Chapter 40

**Chapter 40**

"Aw, c'mon, Britt! I swear! I haven't said anything to Gary!"

Steve stumbled as Britt pushed past him, her black and lilac braids whipping out and hitting his face. It had been hours since their argument in the atrium, which had ended with Britt's thunderous departure. She had spent the intervening time in her room, braiding her hair, with a bit of help from diplomat Anni, and picking out new clothes. The ensemble she had now assumed consisted of purple flared jeans with blue flashes cut into the flare of the fabric, a bright green miniskirt with intricate black embroidery and fringing and a mother of pearl studded cropped top with a purple chiffon halter neck and black fringing. The concave discs of mother of pearl caught the light when she turned, sparkling white, green, blue, lilac and every other colour in between. Admittedly Steve wasn't getting much of a chance to admire them when Britt kept turning away from him.

"Look, it was just a shot in the dark! He was trying to get out of you needling him about Cat! He isn't even interested in OUR love life!" Steve followed Britt around the room as she hunted through drawers and cupboards, flinging unwanted articles onto the floor in her silent rage. At the end of Steve's last phase, she spun round so suddenly that Steve almost walked straight into her.

"We don't have a love life!" Britt snapped. "You were on thin ice from the whole baby business to begin with! Then you run off and leave me! You stay away for far longer than you promised you would! When you do come back I find out you've been with HER!"

"As her prisoner!" Steve interjected indignantly.

"Then, just when I'm starting to trust you again, I get the distinct impression that you've been sitting down there having a good old laugh about us with your brother and all his mates!"

"When did they come in to it?"

"Whatever!" Britt threw up her hands and stormed off, evidently giving up the search in her own room at least.

XXXX

Gary straightened up from the end of the white leather sofa and surveyed the room.

"It looks great," he said, walking round to the front of the sofa and sitting down next to an equally exhausted Bobbi. "Nobody could say you've been lazing around while you ignore Marc."

"I'm not ignoring him," Bobbi shrugged. "I just don't know what to say to him. It's not like he's been going out of his way to talk to me either, you know."

"I know," Gary nodded. "But I know he's waiting for you to go talk to him, whereas you're just waiting. For what exactly? Divine intervention?"

Bobbi laughed a little. "Maybe," she said, flashing a rare smile. "Although I could ask you the same question."

"Oh, not you too!" Gary groaned, sliding down in the sofa until his head rested on the white leather back. "Britt's been going on at me all morning!"

"Well?" Bobbi turned to sit sideways on the sofa. "She has a point!"

Gary sighed and stared at the ceiling with his one good eye. "What are you going to do about the window?" he asked. "You couldn't find a curtain you liked and you can't leave it bare: you can see straight in here, right to the back."

"I'll raid the art store and paint it," Bobbi replied tersely. "Stop trying to change the subject."

"What subject!" Gary shrugged, pulling a face. "There's nothing to talk about."

"Yes there is," Bobbi persisted. "Everyone knows there is," she paused and considered for a moment. "Well, almost everyone. For someone so intelligent, Cat can be remarkably dense at times."

"Or, she just doesn't care either way!" Gary retorted. "And let's face it: we're hardly the ideal couple! The only time we talk to each other we end up fighting!"

"You haven't fought much since Britt gave her that makeover."

"We haven't spoken much since the makeover!"

"What? Not even to tell her what you thought of her new outfit?" Bobbi crossed her legs and settled her chin on her hands. "And do not try and claim you didn't think anything of it: the look on your face was the most talked about thing for at least a week afterwards!"

Gary rolled his eye. "One outfit! An outfit she's never worn since and not likely to wear again. You can hardly base a relationship on that!"

"It's not one outfit," Bobbi pulled a face as she repeated Gary's words back to him. "It's the fact that, for the first time, you saw her as one of the girls, not another guy. Let's face it: you'd been treating her like a guy since you got here!"

"I can't help that! That's how she behaves!"

"Yeah, to you! Anyway: since your brain has figured out that she's female, you don't seem to know how to treat her. That's why you've hardly spoken to her!"

"You've been spending too much time with Will!"

"Don't you dare! I have not!" Bobbi snapped. Gary looked round sharply.

"He's a good guy, you know," he said, sitting up. "A bit quiet sometimes, but a good guy. One of the best."

Bobbi uncrossed her legs and turned round on the sofa, folding her arms as she slumped back. "I'll believe it when I see it," she said.

XXXX

The tramp stumbled as he rounded the corner. If he was right, the doorway should be just ahead of him. Peering forward, he could just make out the brighter rectangle in the gloom. He sighed in relief. His burden was weighing heavily on him, his once strong arms now weakened by his condition.

He had taken a risk, bringing the girl here. Firstly, because it brought him into contact with others. Secondly because he only had a circle on an old sewer map to go by, a map he had found rooting through the girl's bags in search of something to bind up the gash on her head that was keeping her unconscious. It had taken him a little while to work out where on the map he was. That had been another risk, for he had had to backtrack a little distance to find a way up to the street so that he could orientate himself. That could have brought him into contact with others too, but he had been lucky. All the same, what choice did he have? He couldn't have left her there, where she had fallen, lying bleeding into the sewer water.

He dragged himself and his passenger up the steps to the door and pushed at it. It opened without a problem, leading him into the maze of generators. On the far side of the room he could see steps leading up to another door and he made his way over to them. As he climbed, the sound of voices, and the smell of cooking food, grew stronger. Finally, he made his way through a short corridor and a wider hallway, then into the large atrium of the shopping mall he now recognised. Staring up at the bright glass ceiling, it took him a moment to register the sound of a shrill voice shouting a variety of what sounded like names.

The tramp looked in the direction of the voice. A small red haired child was standing on the opposite side of the atrium, pointing at him and shouting. Behind her, a few other females were arriving. Sensing movement from above him, the tramp looked up to see other faces, both male and female, peering down at him over the edges of balustrades. Among them was one he recognised, and the sight of it made him almost drop his precious cargo.

He watched, dumbfounded, as she hurried down the stairs, her action followed by the others who now also descended on him. A tall young man with light brown, curly hair reached him first and took the unconscious girl's body from his tired arms. The rest surrounded him, cutting off his exit and parting only to let that one familiar face through. In moments, she was before him, flanked by two young women he vaguely recognised as her friends. He stared at her, marvelling at the change in her appearance, and wondering what she thought about the change in his.

Finally she spoke.

"James?" Christy said, her voice shaking with emotion and disbelief. "Is that you?"


	42. Chapter 41

**Chapter 41**

Britt prodded Cat in the ribs. "My turn," she hissed, grabbing the binoculars from her now grumbling friend and neighbour.

"You only had to ask!" Cat muttered.

"I did," replied Britt, refocusing the binoculars on the room opposite, far across the open expanse of the atrium. "Twice."

"Anyway..." Cat grumbled.

"Do you really think he has the virus?" Alice asked from Britt's other side. "Will we get it?"

"Who knows," Cat shrugged. "I vote we don't find out!"

"If it is the virus, Christy's taking a big risk talking to him for so long," Britt murmured. "I know I wouldn't!"

"Thanks a bunch," muttered Steve from his seat by one of the pillars.

"The dude did a runner from his fiancé while the whole world was going to Hell in a handbasket," said Cat. "If it was me, I'd want answers."

"Really? I thought beating guys up was more your style?"

"Only for your brother. Other guys, I ask questions first."

"Yeah, then she beats them up!" Britt giggled. "So be warned!"

Cat flashed a grin at Steve that made him decidedly uncomfortable. He sat further back against the pillar and changed the subject.

"What's going on with Di?"

Britt shifted her gaze down a floor to where Di was laid out on Bobbi's bed, the closest to where James had deposited her, and Beth was leaning over her. The wound on Di's head was now bandaged, but she was still unconscious. Beth seemed to be checking the bandage while Bobbi, Sarah and Anne-Marie watched from the sofa and Amy held a basin and towel nearby. Britt reported back to the small group keeping watch from the safe distance of the Illuminati/Vidal Sassoon balcony.

"Will she be okay?" Marie piped up from the other side of the pillar. "Shouldn't she be awake by now?"

Britt sighed and handed the binoculars to a waiting Alice, turning to sit with her back to the balcony railing.

"It's hard to say," she began, looking over to the small, red-haired girl. "Di hit her head when she passed out. Head injuries can be tricky. She might wake up any moment, or she might sleep for days. She might be absolutely fine when she wakes, or she might have something like amnesia. We just don't know."

"What's amnesia?" Marie asked.

"It's when you forget stuff," muttered Alice, still peering through the binoculars.

"I wish I had amnesia," Marie sniffed. "I'd love to be able to forget stuff."

Steve looked round to where the little girl was sat by him, her knees pulled up to her chin. He reached an arm around her and drew her close. "Don't we all, kiddo," he murmured. "Don't we all."

Britt watched in silence until, in turning his head to rest it on Marie's, Steve spotted her. He smiled sadly and Britt returned the smile before looking down at her watch.

"I'm hungry, and it's nearly dinner time," she said. "I think I'll go help Say in the kitchen."

XXXX

"Remind me why I volunteered to help with this?" Gary grunted as he and Zane lifted a recliner chair over the threshold of the furniture shop and into the atrium.

"Because nobody else will be helping you if you don't," Will's Australian accent drawled from behind him. "Keep moving, will ya: this thing is heavy!"

"Yeah, yeah," Gary muttered, making his way to the glass elevator. "This thing better fit in there! Did you have to pick the heaviest furniture int he whole shop?"

"It'll fit," said Zane, pressing the elevator button. "Will and I measured them both."

"Believe me," called Marc from the other end of the leather sofa he and Will were carrying. "You have no idea how glad I am to hear that!"

"Ah, no, sorry mate," said Will. "We measured them both, but only the chair will fit in the elevator. We're heading up the stairs."

Marc let out a heartfelt groan and Gary smirked as the elevator door pinged open.

"See you on the other side, bro!" Gary grinned as the doors shut closed on them and they watched Will and Marc start making their way up the stairs.

XXXX

Beth dried her hands on the towel Amy held out to her, then took the basin, its contents now stained pink with Di's blood, and handed it to Anne-Marie.

"Can you empty this out, clean it and refill it please, Anne-Marie," said Beth gently. "And bring me a jug too. A small one will do." Beth turned back to Amy. "Amy, you know where my essential oils case is? Will you bring it and a burner down from my room, please?"

Amy nodded and headed out. Beth walked over to the sofa and sat down beside Sarah. The pink-haired leader of the Misfits had watched silently while Beth worked on her friend, one arm around the youngest member of her tribe and the other linked through Bobbi's. Now that Anne-Marie had left the room, Sarah was squeezing Bobbi's hand so hard the Amazon was sitting with gritted teeth.

"I've had a good look at the wound," Beth began. "It looks superficial enough and there's no sign of a skull fracture. I've cleaned it and the herbs I've used in the dressing should help to keep infection out. The bleeding seems to have stopped already."

"Seems?" Sarah's voice was ragged, but she was alert enough to pick up on that one word.

"It's stopped on the outside," Beth nodded, "but I can't say what's happening inside her skull. There might be nothing, but..."

Sarah nodded. "What can you do?"

"Not a lot. And whatever we do now, there are risks."

Sarah frowned. "Such as?"

"We have two courses of action available to us," Beth continued softly. "On the one hand, we could assume that there is no internal bleeding and treat the outward symptoms. If we are right, Di will wake up of her own accord."

"And if there is internal bleeding?" Sarah asked. The look on Beth's face was all the response she needed. "So what is our other option?"

"There is a surgical technique. It's old, so old it dates back to Hippocrates, I think, maybe further, and it's dangerous. We'd need some specialist equipment but, between the furniture store and the art store, I think we should have everything we need here."

"What is it?"

"It's called trepanning," said Beth, watching Sarah's face to make sure she understood. "It involves drilling a hole into Di's skull. Just her skull, not her brain. The hole lets the blood out and relieves the pressure on the brain, giving it a chance to recover."

"The main danger being not drilling into the brain, I guess?" Sarah asked.

Beth nodded. "Yes, but that's not the only danger," she replied. "There is the chance that the bleeding, if there is any, has not stopped, or that a major vessel has burst. If that happens, Di could bleed out. We have no way of giving her a blood transfusion. There is a greater risk of infection. There is also the chance that we bore a hole in the wrong place and miss the bleed. If we had a hospital scanner we could check first to see if there was one and where it was. Without that we're working blind."

Sarah nodded and was silent for a while.

"If you don't drill the hole and you're wrong, she'll die, yes?"

Beth nodded.

"If you do drill the hole, and there's no bleed, will she die?"

"Not from the procedure alone," said Beth. "Only if something went wrong."

"Have you ever done this before?"

"No, but I have read about it and watched it done. My father was a doctor. He had to do the exact same thing for someone once when we were out on a camping holiday miles from anywhere."

"I thought you..."

"That was before I... got like this," Beth winced. "But I remember watching him operate, every detail."

Sarah nodded again. "Do it," she said. "I'd rather risk the operation than risk her dying and knowing that we didn't try everything."

Beth nodded. "I'm going to need some very specific things," she said


End file.
